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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Hermann Adler (1839–1911) by Solomon Joseph Solomon, exh. RA 1906 London College of Jewish Studies; photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London
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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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Nathan Marcus Adler (1803–1890) by Barraud, pubd 1889 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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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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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
David Levenson/Getty Images
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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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Sir Israel Brodie (1895–1979) by Michael Wallach private collection; photograph National Portrait Gallery, London
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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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Michael T. R. B. Turnbull
Daiches, Salis (1880–1945), rabbi and author, was born on 10 March 1880 in Vilna, Lithuania (once part of Poland, but then under Russian rule), the second son of Israel Hirsch Daiches (d. 1937) and his wife, Bela Bielitsky. His father, a distinguished rabbi and scholar (latterly principal rabbi of the Orthodox congregations in ...
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Sharman Kadish
Dainov, Zvi Hirsch (1831/2–1877), rabbi, was born in Slutsk, near Minsk, Belorussia (then part of the Russian empire), the son of Ze'ev Dainov. In Russia from 1867 Dainov developed a reputation as an exponent of the haskalah or Jewish enlightenment, but rejected the secularism that characterized the majority of the ...
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Bryan Diamond
Edgar, Leslie Isidore (1905–1984), rabbi, was born Isidore Leslie Etgart at 15 Moreton Street, Pimlico, London, on 24 September 1905, one of eight children of Alfred Etgart, later Edgar (1878–1955), master draper, and his wife, Rose, née Framder (1880–1970). Alfred Etgart changed his surname to ...
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Jonathan Romain
Friedlander, Albert Hoschander (1927–2004), rabbi and writer, was born on 10 May 1927 in Berlin, the son of Alexander Friedlander, textile broker, and his wife, Salome. He had a twin brother, Charles, and a sister, Dorrit, born two years earlier. The date and place of his birth meant that he grew up in what soon became Nazi ...
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Gaster, Moses (1856–1939), scholar and rabbi, was born in Bucharest, Romania, on or about 16 September 1856, the eldest son of Abraham Emanuel Gaster (d. 1926), then the commercial attaché of the Netherlands consulate in that city, and his wife, Phina Judith Rubinstein...
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Gollancz, Sir Hermann (1852–1930), rabbi and Semitic scholar, was born at Bremen on 30 November 1852, the eldest son of Rabbi Samuel Marcus Gollancz, minister of the Hambro Synagogue, then in Leadenhall Street, London, and his wife, Johanna Koppell. He had three sisters and three brothers, his youngest brother being ...
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Gerry Black
Green, Aaron Levy (1821–1883), rabbi, was born in Middlesex Street (popularly known as Petticoat Lane), Aldgate, London, in August 1821, the youngest of the eight children of Levy Ephraim Green (1784–1858), a local tradesman, and his wife, Amelia Hyams (1779–1854). He was educated at the ...
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Sharman Kadish
Grunfeld, Isidor (1900–1975), rabbi, was born on 27 October 1900 in Tauberettersheim, near Würzburg, Bavaria, the eldest son of wealthy cattle drover and agricultural merchant Joseph Grunfeld and his second wife, Carolina Fromm. Both his parents claimed family connections with important rabbis. Joseph...
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Albert Friedlander
Gryn, Hugo Gabriel (1930–1996), rabbi and broadcaster, was born in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia, on 25 June 1930, in a home filled with great learning and warmth. His father, Géza Gryn (1900–1945), was a timber merchant; his mother was Bella Neufeld (1908–1964) of Silce. The ...
