Rabbeinu Yosef Breuer was born in 1882 in Pápa, Hungary, where his father, Rav Shlomo Breuer, was the Rav. Upon the passing of Rav Samson Rephoel Hirsch in 1888, Rav Shlomo Breuer (his son-in-law) succeeded him as Rav of the independent Kehilla Adas Yeshurun (Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft) in Frankfurt, and subsequently opened the Frankfurt Yeshiva (Torah Lehranstalt). His son, Rav Yosef, learned in the Frankfurt Yeshiva and received semicha from his father and Rav Yaakov Koppel Reich (Chief Rabbi of Budapest). Rav Yosef became a teacher in the Hirsch Realschule and Rav of the Klaus Shul; he also was a Rebbi in the Yeshiva and eventually succeeded his father as Rosh Yeshiva upon his passing in 1926. Rav Yosef escaped Germany in 1938 after Kristallnacht and settled in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York. There he rebuilt the Frankfurt legacy, based on the Torah im Derech Eretz philosophy of Rav Hirsch, including a Shul, school, Yeshiva, Seminary, mikva, kashrus organization, and gemilas chesed societies. Limud Hatorah was a focal point of the Kehilla; Rav Yosef Breuer continued his Shiurim until he passed away in 1980.