Joseph Mesas (Meshash), the scion of a distinguished Sephardi rabbinical family and the son of Rabbi Ḥayyim Mesas, was born in 1892 in Meknes. In 1912 he participated in the establishment of a new institution for rabbinical training in Meknes, founded on the initiative of Rabbi Zeʾev Wolf Halperin, who was also the founder of the Em Habanim educational organization. In 1924 Mesas accepted a position as rabbi of Tlemcen  in Algeria. He returned to Meknes in the spring of 1940 and was appointed dayyan, a post he retained until 1964, when he made aliya and was elected chief rabbi of Haifa, in whic…