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Yosef Zundel of Salant (1786–1866) (also known as Zundel Salant) was an Ashkenazi Jews rabbi and the primary teacher of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.
As a young man, Zundel studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva under Rabbi Chaim Volozhin. Following Volozhin's death in 1821, Zundel made trips to study with Rabbi Akiva Eiger.
He and his wife, Rochel Rivkah, had two daughters, Tziviah and Heniah, and a son, Aryeh Leib. Zundel did not accept any rabbinical positions and ran a small business which produced only a meager living.
In the late 1830s, Zundel settled in Jerusalem, where, at the urging of Rabbi Lehren, he served as the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community. For centuries, all disputes in Halakha (Jewish law) disputes and queries in Jerusalem were brought to the Sephardi Jews Beth din (rabbinical court). Due to the recent growth of the Ashkenazi community, Lehren wanted Ashkenazim to have their own court. Zundel opened the court, as a temporary court.
In 1841, he appointed his son-in-law Rabbi Shmuel Salant to the court and soon made him the head of it, a position that he held for almost seventy years until his death in 1909.
Zundel lived in a small one-room apartment and sustained himself and his family by selling vinegar, but spent most of the day and night in the Menachem Zion Synagogue, which was completed in 1837.
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