Abendana, Jacob (c. 1630–1685), leader of the Sephardi Jewish community in London, was born in Spain and was taken with his brother Isaac Abendana to Hamburg, Germany, as a child. Jacob studied at the Yeshiva de los Pintos at Rotterdam, and at the age of twenty-five he was already a rabbi in ...
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David S. Katz
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Abramsky, Yehezkel (1886–1976), rabbinic scholar and Orthodox Jewish leader, was born on or about 7 February 1886 in Dashkovtsy, near Most and Grodno, Lithuania, the third child and eldest son of Mordecai Zalman Abramsky, a local timber merchant, and his wife, Freydel Goldin...
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Geoffrey Alderman
Adler, Hermann (1839–1911), chief rabbi, was born in Hanover on 30 May 1839, the second son of two sons and three daughters of Nathan Marcus Adler (1803–1890), then chief rabbi of Hanover, and his first wife, Henrietta Worms (d. 1854). In June 1845 the family moved to ...
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Geoffrey Alderman
Adler, Nathan Marcus (1803–1890), chief rabbi, was born on 15 January 1803 in Hanover, the third son of Mordecai Baer Adler, the unofficial chief rabbi in Hanover. His mother's name remains unknown. Adler's education, a synthesis of strict Orthodox Judaism and the world of secular scholarship, typified the modern outlook of ‘Torah-true’ Judaism fashioned in the wake of the Enlightenment. ...
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Alex, (Edward) Ephraim (1800–1882), founder of the Jewish Board of Guardians, was born on 12 December 1800 in St Katherine in the City of London. He was the eldest surviving son of Solomon Alex, dentist, of 11 Finsbury Place, Finsbury, and 21 Jewry Street, Aldgate...
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Alexander, David Lindo (1842–1922), lawyer and Jewish community leader, was born at 6 South Street, London, on 5 October 1842, second son in the large family of solicitor Joshua Alexander and his wife, Jemima (b. 1819), one of eighteen children of David Abarbanel Lindo...
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Abraham Levy
Artom, Benjamin (1835–1879), rabbi, was born in Asti, Piedmont, Italy, the son of Elia Artom, scion of a well-known and talented Jewish family which probably originated from Germany. Artom trained as a rabbi, and held a number of rabbinical posts in Italy; he was the first to hold the post of rabbi of ...
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Kenneth E. Collins
Asher, Asher (1837–1889), physician and community worker, was born on 16 February 1837 in Glasgow, the first son of Philip Asher, son of Rabbi Zev Wolf of Lublin, and his wife, Hannah, a native of the Netherlands. From an early age he was an assiduous scholar of Jewish and secular subjects, winning prizes at ...
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Hilary L. Rubinstein
Bentwich, Herbert (1856–1932), lawyer and Zionist leader, was born on 11 May 1856 at 57 Church Lane, Whitechapel, London, the youngest of three children (he had a brother and a sister) of Marks, or Mattos (Mattathias), Bentwitch, a jeweller who had immigrated from ...
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Walter Zander
revised by Robert Brown
Bentwich, Norman de Mattos (1883–1971), colonial official and exponent of Jewish ideals, was born in London on 28 February 1883, the elder son and second of eleven children of Herbert Bentwich (1856–1932) and his wife, Susannah, daughter of Joseph Solomon, leather merchant, and sister of ...
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Julia Neuberger
Blue, Lionel (1930–2016), rabbi, broadcaster, and author, was born on 6 February 1930 at the Mothers’ Hospital in Hackney, London, as Lionel Bluestein, the only child of Harris (Harry) Bluestein, later Harry Blue (1890–1965), tailor, and his wife Hetty, or Hettie, ...
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Lionel Blue (1930–2016), by David Levenson, 2005
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Brodetsky, Selig (1888–1954), mathematician and Zionist leader, was born on 5 July 1888 at Olviopol, a small town in Ukraine 100 miles north of Odessa, the second son among the thirteen children of Akiva Brodetsky (1864–1942), a synagogue official, and his wife, Adel Prober (1864–1926)...
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Brodie, Sir Israel (1895–1979), chief rabbi, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 May 1895 as the second son and second of the five children (one daughter; a son died in infancy) of Aaron Uri Brodie (originally Braude or Broide), a sales representative who had immigrated from ...
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Sharman Kadish
Chaikin, Moses Avigdor (1852–1928), rabbi, was born in Shklov, in Mohilev province, Belorussia, then in the Russian empire, on 11 May 1852, the son of Rabbi Israel Shraga Chaikin and his wife, Chaya Dina. His parents were Hasidic Jews, adherents of the Lubavitch...
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Sharman Kadish
Cohen, Sir Benjamin Louis, first baronet (1844–1909), politician and Jewish communal leader, was born on 18 November 1844 at South Street, Finsbury, London, the eighth of nine surviving children of Louis Cohen (1799–1882), founder of the City firm of Louis Cohen & Sons...