XIXth century CE

Austrian politician

American rabbi

Second son of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling. Secretary of State for India from 1917 to 1922 (Montagu-Chelmsford reforms / Government of India Act 1919). The only Jew in the cabinet during the…

Hungarian footballer

Italian rabbi born in Brody, Galicia, in 1818, died in Rome on December 27, 1899. Attracted by the reputation of Samuel David Luzzatto, he studied at the Istituto Rabbinico of Padua and received his…

Hungarian educator and writer born in Szilágy-Nagyfalu in 1825, died in Budapest on December 27, 1894. After teaching in several cities, he settled in Budapest in 1867 to devote himself to literary…

Russian educator and rabbi born in Mitau, Courland, on September 20, 1837. Teaching Hebrew and religion in Friedrichstadt from 1858, he studied in Berlin under Michael Sachs from 1861 and obtained…

Biblical critic born in Volodovka, near Brest-Litovsk, in Russia, on January 15, 1848. Trained at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, where he became assistant librarian of Oriental books at the…

Composer, pianist, and German music critic, born in Vienna on October 5, 1822, died on December 20, 1899. After early positions in Bucharest and Jassy and a post as court pianist to George V of…

Polish philologist born in Lublin in 1818, died in Paris in 1861, one of the great Talmudists of his time and master of Oriental and modern languages. Most of his work remained unpublished; only his…

Austrian rabbi born in Muttersdorf, Bohemia, in 1816, died in Brünn on November 15, 1882. After studies in Budapest and Prague, he was rabbi and preacher in Kuttenplan and Dürrmaul from 1843, then…

German pianist born in Berlin on April 15, 1857, trained on piano with Reinecke and in composition with Paul at the Leipzig Conservatory. Professor at the musical institute in Kharkov until 1880,…

Hungarian pianist born in Budapest on May 8, 1872, trained first by her cousin Albert Eibenschütz then, from 1878 to 1885, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Hans Schmitt. After a remarkable debut in…

Violinist, orchestra conductor and composer, born in Düsseldorf on June 13, 1824, died in Boston on January 18, 1893. Trained notably under Reitz and Mendelssohn then at the Brussels Conservatory,…

French publicist and Hellenist born in Nancy on March 22, 1804, died in Paris on April 9, 1882. Converted to Catholicism in his adolescence, he became a disciple of Auguste Comte after leaving the…

Physician born on 10 January 1862 in Grodno, Russia, doctor from the University of Berlin in 1884. Established in New York, he was resident physician at the German Hospital in 1885 then, after a stay…

Born in Cincinnati on 18 November 1842 and trained in New York, where he obtained a master's degree from Union College of Schenectady. Representative of New York to the forty-sixth Congress, he was…

Austrian rabbi born 11 February 1825 in Boskowitz, Moravia. Trained in Talmud under rabbi Abraham Placzek and in Oriental languages at the University of Prague, where he also attended the courses of…

Austrian educator and philosophical writer born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on January 20, 1823, died in Troppau, Silesia, on December 21, 1902. Trained in philosophy and Oriental languages in Prague, he…

Austrian writer born in Vienna on January 7, 1873. Trained at the universities of Berlin, Vienna, and Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1894, he settled in Vienna in 1899,…

Austrian colonel born in Piesling, Moravia, in 1832. Entered the Austrian army at fifteen, he took part in the campaigns of 1848, 1849, 1859 and 1866, received several decorations including the Order…

Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-4.

Lithuanian rabbi

English children's writer

publicist

Rabbi and preacher native to Tunis, where he died in 1812. Two of his works were published long after his death: « Mishkenot ha-Ro'im » (Livorno, 1860), a collection of responsa relating to the…

rabbi (1817-1890)

Dutch botanist and conservationist (1861–1914)

Greek architect

Native of Constantinople, the most prolific author of original novels in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), with dozens of novels and novellas (romansos). Founder and director in 1908 of the satirical…

Born in Turin, trained at the Italian Rabbinical College of Florence (semikha 1912). Rabbi of the communities of Turin, Tripoli (1920–1923), Alexandria and Florence (1926–1934), then director of the…

Born in Haifa, educator and politician, involved in the founding of the World Federation of Sephardic Communities (Vienna, 1925).

Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5592 of the Hebrew calendar (1832). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.

Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5604 of the Hebrew era (1844). Son of Reuben. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.

Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5606 of the Hebrew era (1846). Son of Shimon. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.

Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Son of Haim II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.

Rabbi, nineteenth century. Born in 5630 of the Hebrew calendar (1870). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.

Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5573 of the Hebrew era (1813). Son of Yehonatan II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-3.

French rabbi

Chief Rabbi of Saïda in Algeria, renowned for his knowledge of sacred texts. He gave Hebrew lessons in Algiers, was a much-revered rabbi, and died in Jerusalem after emigrating there.

advisor to the King of Hawaii

chief Rabbi of Athens during the Holocaust

Eldest son of David Joseph Ezra, he had the Magen David synagogue of Calcutta built in 1884 in honor of his father and was himself sheriff of Calcutta; an inscription in the synagogue describes him…

German historian

British consul general in Machhad, Persia, and explorer, died in London on May 31, 1897. In 1871, he conceived the bold project of reaching Europe from China by land through all of Asia, crossing the…

Russian rabbi born in Kovno in 1850, died in Volkovysk, in the Government of Grodno, on November 20, 1898. Rabbi first in Pumpian then in Mariampol, he became, like his father, one of the leaders of…

Russian rabbi born in Shaykshok, in the Governorate of Grodno, in February 1817, died in Bausk, in Courland, on 11 December 1889. A merchant in Kovno, he withdrew from business on the advice of his…

Polish lawyer

Italian rabbi

French rabbi

Honorary Chief Rabbi of Belgium (1866-1979), Deputy to the Chief Rabbi of Paris (1857), One of the founders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (1860)

Father of modern Hebrew. A Lithuanian linguist who emigrated to Jerusalem, he devoted his life to the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language. His monumental dictionary (17 volumes) and his struggle…

Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.

Yiddish poet and short-story writer born in Poland, member of the In Zikh group.

Rabbi of Constantinople in the first half of the nineteenth century, contemporary of Ḥiyya Pontremoli, author of « Mishnat de-Rabbi Eli'ezer », a collection of one hundred thirty-four responsa on…

Austrian Galician Rabbi, of the town of Czernowitz and of province of Bukovina

Lithuanian rabbi

Romanian rabbi

Son of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz, he founded the Hasidic court of Dzikov, a faithful continuation of Ropshitz Hasidism, which perpetuated itself over several generations (Dzikov-Tarnów,…

Jewish liturgist (1817–1887)

rabbi

German rabbi

Israeli educator (1879-1946)

American-Lithuanian rabbi

Yiddish fabulist from Bessarabia, pedagogue, author of the collection « Mesholim ».

American-Lithuanian rabbi

Writer and editor, first editor of the literary journal Ktuvim.

Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Son of Habib II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.

Rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva of Mir (Poland then Jerusalem); called « Reb Leizer Yudel ».

Skulener Rebbe

Writer and apologist, author of Shalom al Yisrael on Hasidism.

Elder son of Count Salomon Henri d'Avigdor and grandson of Isaac Samuel d'Avigdor. Railway engineer (Syria, Transylvania), he was also an editor (of the Examiner and Yachting Gazette) and wrote…

Son of the Maggid of Mogielnica and great-grandson of the Maggid of Kozhnitz, he became one of the great Hasidic rebbes of Poland in the 19th century, founder of the Grodzisk dynasty. His teachings…

Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5629 of the Hebrew era (1869). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.

Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5601 of the Hebrew era (1841). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.

Poetess of Russian origin writing in Hebrew, one of the mothers of Hebrew poetry.

Born Rosine Boumendil in Blida into a modest Jewish family, she settled in Paris in 1919 and published under the pseudonym « Elissa Rhaïs » a series of bestselling novels about the Orient (Saâda,…

Born in Baghdad, Chief Rabbi of Hebron (1858-1899), student of Somekh and Ben Ich Haï.

Israeli politician

Chief Rabbi of Lodz for 35 years, major figure of Polish Judaism.

Lithuanian rabbi

Labor Zionist leader, signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, member of the executive of the Jewish Agency where he headed the immigration department during the Second World War, and…

Latvian rabbi

Lithuanian-Belarusian rabbi

Son of Yosef Leib Bloch; cofounder and first rosh yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland.

rabbi

Nuclear chemist, world expert in isotope separation and polonium.

Hungarian rabbi

Russian physician and hebraist born in Toulchyn, in the government of Podolia, died in Saint-Petersburg on January 31, 1822. He composed a hymn in Hebrew and in French dedicated to Tsar Alexander I…

Russian physician and anthropologist born in Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper in 1869, medical graduate of Moscow university in 1893. Commissioned by the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences, Anthropology…

Austrian architect

Indian statesman born in London January 24, 1823, died in Savoy June 20, 1887, son of S. H. Ellis, treasurer of the Great Synagogue of London. After studying at the University of London and then…

Minister of Finance of the Grand Duchy of Baden, born March 11, 1827 in Karlsruhe. Trained in law at Heidelberg and Bonn, he entered banking in Berlin in 1856 and then practiced law in Durlach from…

Born into a Baghdadi Jewish family active in trade in the Middle East and India. Employee of the Sassoon company, he went to Hong Kong in 1880, opened his own brokerage firm, invested in real estate…

Honorary Grand Rabbi of Mogador, in Morocco, born in Rabat in 1809, died in London on January 9, 1886. Settled in Mogador at seventeen, he was elected grand rabbi of the community in 1840 and also…

Italian writer

second wife and cousin of Albert Einstein

American architect

German Jewish journalist, activist and children's author, first woman elected to leadership positions in major German Jewish organizations, deported to Theresienstadt.

Austrian writer

Polish teacher born in 1817, died in Warsaw on July 10, 1886. Trained at the rabbinical seminary in Warsaw, he devoted himself to the education of Jewish children and published numerous school…

American physician

German archaeologist

Master of Mussar (school of Kelm); rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim in London; author of Lev Eliyahu.

Minister of worship and author born in Elburg, Holland, in 1835, died in Hull, England, in 1880. Trained in the Netherlands, he settled in England around 1867, then from 1871 directed the Hebrew…

American rabbi born in Eydtkuhnen, in Germany, in 1867, trained at the Jews' College in London (1880-90) and graduated from the University of London in 1885. Settled in Toronto in 1890, where he was…

Austrian jurist (1873-1930)

German teacher

(1857-1938)

World chess champion for 27 years (1894-1921), grandson of a rabbi and son of a synagogue cantor. Doctor of mathematics (he gives his name to the « Lasker-Noether rings »), he taught mathematics and…

Austrian archaeologist

Banker and merchant born in Calcutta on 14 November 1837 into a Venetian Jewish family of Portuguese Sephardic origin. Settled in Hong Kong in 1862, he chaired the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking…

Romanian-born Jewish physician known for his controversial unconventional cancer treatment methods in New York.

Historian trained at the University of Warsaw (doctorate 1927), he founded and directed the clandestine group « Oyneg Shabbos » that documented life and extermination in the Warsaw ghetto. The…

American rabbi

Austrian-American musicologist, curator of the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Jewish emigrant from Vienna following the Anschluss.

Secretary and solicitor of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, born in Portsmouth on May 14, 1832, died in London on June 19, 1898. Admitted as a solicitor in 1853, he published in 1881 a pamphlet…

Italian general

German engraver and photographer born in Frankfurt-am-Main on 18 October 1815, died in that same city on 6 September 1875. Trained as an apprentice engraver and lithographer, he left Frankfurt in…

Austrian surgeon

German physician

German musician

Romanian prose writer, translator, journalist and theatre and music critic

American rabbi

Hungarian Jewish violinist, founding member of the Budapest String Quartet. Emigrated to Jerusalem, he founded there the Conservatory of Music of Palestine and participated in the rescue of Jewish…

Austrian-Jewish economist and sociologist born to a Jewish merchant family in Plzeň, Bohemia; purged from his post in 1933 for being Jewish, he became first dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political…

Jewish Austrian-Hungarian art historian suicide (1874–1944)

Hannoverian rabbi who fled Germany in 1938 and became a rabbi in Pottstown, PA

Austrian anatomist born into a Jewish family in Győr (Hungary). Professor of descriptive and topographical anatomy at the University of Vienna from 1888, holder of Vienna's first chair of anatomy.…

French rabbi

Born in Paris on August 29, 1826, student of François-Édouard Picot and Abel de Pujol. Grand Prix de Rome for painting in 1854 (subject: « Abraham washing the feet of the angels »), resident of the…

Franco-German photographer

Italian woman of letters, teacher and literary critic (sister of composer Felice Boghen). Author of « Studi letterari » and other critical works, she contributed to the press linked to the emerging…

American poet, author of the sonnet "The New Colossus" engraved on the Statue of Liberty. She defended Jewish refugees fleeing the Russian pogroms.

Emma Lyon (1788-1870), daughter of Reverend Solomon Lyon of Cambridge, is the author of «Miscellaneous Poems» (1812), one of the very first collections of poetry published by a Jewish woman in…

From a Jewish family of the high Parisian bourgeoisie (related to Bergson and Proust), he was a pacifist intellectual. Author of pamphlets such as "Death of Bourgeois Thought" (1929), he directed the…

Member of the Sephardic Jewish Carasso family of Salonika, lawyer, he was a leading figure of the Young Turks and deputy to the Ottoman parliament. He was part of the delegation that notified Sultan…

Active Talmudist, seemingly in Prague in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, author of "Emunat Yisrael", a treatise of morality and dogmatics based on Maimonides, Judah ha-Levi and Naḥmanide…

Hungarian physician and surgeon born in Marosvásárhely, Hungary, in 1852, trained in Budapest and Leipzig. Appointed surgical assistant at the university hospital of Klausenburg in 1880, privatdocent…

Hungarian sculptor born in 1815, died in Budapest on June 29, 1902. Destined for the rabbinate, he abandoned his Talmudic studies for Vienna, where he learned woodcarving before entering the Academy…

Austrian scholar active in Vienna in the first half of the 19th century, author of prayers for the cemetery (« Emunah Lishene 'Afar », 1828), extracts from the Pentateuch translated into German («…

Austrian chess player born in 1851 in Hotzenplotz, in Austrian Silesia, died on 19 October 1897 in Vienna. He won first prize in the Leipzig tournament in 1879, ranked fourth in London in 1883,…

French playwright born in Paris on June 17, 1811, died in that same city on January 26, 1899. After beginnings as a law clerk, painter and journalist, he made his debut as a playwright in 1831 and…

French deputy born in Nancy on January 2, 1801, died in Brussels on May 19, 1863. Long attached to the Jewish school of Strasbourg, of which he became director, he compiled with Hirth a "General…

Russian Talmudist died in Białystok in 1867, author of numerous commentaries compiled from earlier works, notably those of Samuel Jafé Ashkenazi, enriched with his own novellæ: on the Midrash Rabba…

German rabbi born in Hamburg on October 8, 1814, died in Fulda on December 31, 1876. Educated at the Johanneum of Hamburg, at the talmudic courses of Hakham Isaac Bernays and then at the University…

Born Enoch Henryk Glicensztajn in Turek (Poland), son of a tombstone cutter, he studied at Munich Academy. Twice winner of the Prix de Rome (1894, 1897), he settled in Rome, took Italian nationality,…

Physician and Argentine politician, born in Riga (Russian Empire) in a Jewish family (father a synagogue dignitary), immigrated to Argentina in 1891. National deputy on several occasions, leading…

Joseph Eötvös was a Hungarian statesman, born in Buda on September 13, 1813 and died in Budapest on February 2, 1871. He worked towards the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary, whom he defended as…

Son of Joseph Eliakim, himself rabbi and notable of the Judeo-Arabophone community of Tiberias. Ephraïm became Haham and one of the dayanim of the city, charged with the interests of community…

German rabbi

Israeli rabbi

American Hebrew poet, author of epics inspired by Native American legends.

Norwegian surgeon

Russian Talmudist born in Vitebsk in 1850, died in Frankfurt-am-Main on October 24, 1884, descendant of the Maharal of Prague, R. Yom-Ṭov Lipman Heller and R. Moses Kremer of Vilna. His "Toledot…

German Jewish ethnologist born in Berlin, trained in Leipzig, pioneer of ethnography of Eastern Jewish communities in Mandatory Palestine in the 1920s-1930s. His work focuses on the material culture…

French composer born in Paris on May 25, 1863, trained at the Conservatoire where he won the first Grand Prize of Rome in 1888, the year he composed « Saint Julien l'Hospitalier » in Rome, which…

French composer born in Wissembourg, Alsace, in 1830, died in Brussels in 1895, son of Rabbi Israël Süsskind Erlanger and brother of Michel Erlanger. Graduate of the Paris Conservatory and cofounder…

French community activist born in Wissembourg, Alsace, in 1828, died in Paris on 27 September 1892. Sent young to Alexandria, he became aware there of the condition of Oriental Jews, then visited…

Born in Berlin in 1863, educated in philosophy, he settled in Rome, became an Italian citizen and entered the State Archives of Rome in 1891. He then directed the State Archives of Parma (1927–1930)…

French rabbi

American politician

Hungarian-Canadian rabbi, linguist and scholar (1899–1983)

French rabbi

Born in London to Mayer Moses Nathan (a Briton of German origin) and Sara Levi (from Pesaro), both Jewish, he grew up in a family close to exiles of the Risorgimento, including Giuseppe Mazzini.…

Hungarian politician

Hungarian pediatrician

(1878-1944) classical pianist, music pedagogue

Hungarian journalist

German rabbi

German philosopher

German philosopher

Member of the Flersheim family, established in Frankfurt since the seventeenth century (first in the Judengasse, then in the Westend). With his brother Martin he runs the Flersheim-Hess house. Major…

German actor

German historian

Historian of Greek and Roman religions, born in Posen, professor at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin (1925). Founder in 1913 of an Institute for comparative study of religions; author of…

Giorgio Errera was an Italian chemist, born on 26 October 1860 in Venice. Trained at the universities of Padua and Turin, where he obtained his doctorate in chemistry in 1882, he became assistant to…

Léo-Abram Errera was a Belgian botanist, born in Laeken on September 4, 1858 and died in Brussels on August 1, 1905. Trained at the universities of Brussels, Strasbourg, Bonn and Würzburg, he became…

Paul-Joseph Errera was a Belgian jurist, born in Laeken on July 23, 1860 and trained at the university of Brussels, where he became professor of law. Counsel of the Independent State of Congo and of…

Italian poet

Elia Esra was a philanthropist, born in Calcutta on February 20, 1830, son of David Joseph Esra, and died in March 1886. One of the richest merchants in India, nicknamed "the Rothschild of India", he…

Yiddish novelist and short-story writer, elder sister of I. B. and I. J. Singer.

First sabra poet, singer of the landscapes of Eretz Israel.

Regarded as the founder of modern Yiddish theatre (« mother of Yiddish theatre »), mother of Ida Kamińska. Around 1924 she began her memoirs, published serially posthumously in the Warsaw newspaper…

Yiddish poetess born in Belarus, active in Canada and the United States.

Italian banker and businessman of Jewish origin

Born in Gorizia on August 23, 1826, son of Samuel Vita Lolli and cousin (and disciple) of Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Trained at the Rabbinical College of Padua, he succeeded in 1865 to Shadal's…

German politician

German orientalist

Born in Berlin on July 6, 1888 in a non-practicing Jewish family (his father was a banker at the Berlin Stock Exchange), converted to Christianity in his adolescence. In 1916 he exchanged…

American rabbi

Born in Paris, grandson through his mother of Parisian hazzan Lovy, he was professor of rhetoric then inspector general of Public Instruction and taught for twenty years Greco-Latin literature at the…

Austrian ethnologist