קהילת יהודי פראג

זכריה פרנקל (1801 – 1875), רב והיסטוריון, נולד בפראג, הרפובליקה הצ'כית (אז חלק מהאימפריה האוסטרית) למשפחה נודעת של חכמי תלמוד. נחשב בעיני רבים להוגה היהדות הקונסרבטיבית. פרנקל יסד את אסכולת היהדות ההיסטורית, שדוגלת בחופש המחקר ובו בזמן משמרת את סמכותן של המצוות, האמונה והמסורת. הוא התחנך בפראג בישיבה של בצלאל רונספרג ואז עבר לבודפשט, הונגריה, ולמד פילוסופיה, מדעי הטבע ופילולוגיה באוניברסיטה (1825 – 1830). ב- 1832 נתמנה לרב של ליטומריצה - הרב הראשון בבוהמיה שהיה לו תואר אקדמי ואשר נשא דרשותיו בשפה הגרמנית.

ב- 1847 הוכיח חיבורו החשוב Die Eidesleistung bei den Juden in Theologischer und Historischer Beziehung את מקורה של אפליית היהודים והטענה כי אינם מהימנים כעדים במשפט בסקסוניה ובמדינות אחרות. גם בפרוסיה ציין החוק כי עדותו של יהודי נגד נוצרי תקפה רק במשפט אזרחי, וגם אז רק כשמדובר בסכום הנמוך מחמישים טלרים. הודות למחקרו של פרנקל בוטל החוק המפלה הזה. פרנקל היה סבור כי הגיון שמבוסס על מחקר ולא רק רצון מצד הקהילה, חייב להצדיק רפורמות בקרב היהדות. הוא הכניס כמה שינויים קלים בתפילה, למשל מקהלת נערים וכדומה, אך התנגד לשינויים שלא התאימו למסורת. הוא גינה את החלטתו של הרב יוסף הופמן מסקס-מיינינגן, שהתיר לתלמידי תיכון יהודיים לכתוב בשבת.

ב- 1836 נתמנה לרב הראשי של דרזדן בסקסוניה, וב- 1843 הוזמן לכס הרבנות הראשית בברלין, משרה שלא אוישה מאז 1800 משום שהממשלה הפרוסית "סבלה" את היהדות אך סירבה לתת לה הכרה חוקית.

עמדתו של פרנקל במחלוקת על סידור המבורג החדש (1842) הרגיזה את שני הצדדים. הליברלים כעסו משום שבמקום להכריז שהסידור שלהם עולה בקנה אחד עם המסורת היהודית, הצביע פרנקל על חוסר עקביות בסידור, ואילו האורתודוכסים התרעמו על שהתיר חלק מהשינויים שהוכנסו בסידור.

במאמר משנת 1845 שפרסם בעתון בפרנקפורט על המיין הודיע פרנקל על הסתייגותו מכנס רבני שהתקיים בעיר, משום שעברה בו החלטה להכריז שהעברית אינה שפה הכרחית בתפילה. המאמר הפך אותו לאחד המנהיגים של התנועה הקונסרבטיבית בגרמניה. את עקרונותיו ניסח והפיץ בירחון Zeitschrift für die Religiösen Interessen des Judenthums שהוציא לאור מ- 1844. אולם גישתו עוררה את כעסם של שני הצדדים. מטרתו היתה ליצור סינתזה בין יהדות מסורתית היסטורית לבין צרכי התקופה בתהליך הדרגתי של רפורמה.

פרנקל נבחר לנשיא הסמינר הרבני החדש בברסלאו (כיום ורוצלאב, פולין) בשנת 1854. שם השפיעה גישתו הפוזיטיביסטית-היסטורית על התנועה הקונסרבטיבית בארצות הברית. בסמינר הגדיר את הסטנדרטים, תכנית הלימודים והכישורים הנחוצים בהכשרה רבנית מודרנית. הוא ניסה להשתמש בשיטות מדעיות מודרניות על מנת לשפר את הבנת התלמוד. במבוא שלו למשנה " דרכי המשנה" (1859) מובאת היסטוריה שיטתית של ספרות רבנית ותאולוגיה קדומות. חיבורו על חוק הנישואין הרבני משנת 1860 Grundlinien des Mosaisch-Talmudischen Eherechts נועד להוות ספר לימוד על הנושא. מחקריו בתולדות הספרות התלמודית שכנעו אותו כי זניחתו של תלמוד ירושלמי היתה פגם מהותי בחקר התפתחות התלמוד. כדי לנסות ולתקן זאת, הוא פרסם ב- 1870 מבוא לתלמוד ירושלמי, "מבוא הירושלמי". אז החל לכתוב פרשנות חדשה על הירושלמי, והספיק להוציא לאור שלושה פרקים לפני מותו.

גייגר, מנהיג היהודים הליברלים, מי שדחף ליסודו של הסמינר החדש, התנגד נחרצות למינויו של פרנקל. מצד שני שמשון רפאל הירש, מיד עם פתיחתו של הסמינר, פנה במכתב פתוח אל פרנקל, בו דרש ממנו הצהרה על העקרונות הדתיים שינחו את ההוראה במוסד החדש, אך פרנקל לא נענה לאתגר. כשיצא הכרך הרביעי של תולדות גרץ ב- 1856, הירש הדיח את האורתודוכסים מהמוסד החדש. סערה של האשמות, מתקפות ומתקפות-נגד פרצה בעתונות היהודית. הירש כתב סדרת מאמרים נגד ההגדרה שנתן פרנקל למסורת הרבנית. בתשובה הצביע פרנקל על כך שרבנו אשר קבע כי לא כל דבר המכונה חוק ואשר ניתן בהר סיני אכן שייך לתורת משה. רבנים אורתודוכסים תמכו בהירש, ביניהם עזריאל הילדסהיימר, שלמה קליין מקולמר וב.ה. אוורבך, ואילו חלק מתומכיו של פרנקל, ביניהם שלמה יהודה רפופורט, הפגינו אדישות, כמו רוב הציבור היהודי, שנותר אדיש למחלוקת. אולם בהדרגה התחזקה עמדתו של פרנקל, הודות לבוגרי הסמינר שנהיו גדולים בתורה ונודעו כמייצגי היהדות הקונסרבטיבית.

פרנקל כתב מאמרים רבים לשני מגזינים שערך, ה Zeitschrift für die Religiösen Interessen des Judenthums (1844 – 1846) וה Monatsschrift, שהוקם ב- 1851 ושערך עד 1868 – את מקומו כעורך תפס אז היינריך גרץ.

Herrmann, Leo (1889-1945), Zionist activist and author, born in Landškroun (Landskorn in German), Bohemia (then part of the Austria-Hungary, now in the Czech Republic). He studied law at the University of Prague, where he joined the Zionist organization Bar Kochba, serving as its chairman between 1908-1909. From 1907 to 1913 he edited the Prague Selbstwehr, a Zionist periodical. Herrmann moved to Berlin, Germany, in 1913, where he edited the Juedische Rundschau of Berlin from 1914 to 1919. He was one of the promoters of the review Der Jude, founded in 1916. In 1916 he also edited Die Treue, a collection of essays on Jewish themes. He was a member of the delegation of Czechoslovakian Jews at the Versailles Peace Conference, and in 1919 was appointed Secretary General of the World Zionist Organization in London. In 1926 he immigrated to the Land of Israel settling in Jerusalem where he became Secretary General of the Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) in Jerusalem. In 1934-1935 he wrote the scenario and produced the film, Towards a New Life, which was sponsored by the Palestine Foundation Fund.

Hauser, Franz (1794-1870), singer and teacher, born in Krasovice (Kraschowitz in German), near Prague,  Bohemia, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). Over a period of many years he sang leading baritone roles in major opera houses throughout Europe, including those of Vienna (1828), London (1832), and Berlin (1835). In 1837 he settled in Vienna, where he became well-known as a teacher of singing. In 1846, he was appointed director of the Munich Conservatory, a post he held to 1865, when he was pensioned. He wrote a treatise on singing Gesanglehre.
Hauser died in Freiburg, Germany.

Friedländer, Saul (b. 1932), historian, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia). He lived in France from 1939 to 1948. During the Holocaust, he was hidden in a Catholic boarding school in Montlucon, France. His parents however, did not survive the Holocaust. They were arrested while attempting to flee to Switzerland and eventually deported to Auschwitz Nazi death camp where they were murdered.  Having returned to Judaism, Friedlander immigrated to Israel in 1948. Following his military service in IDF (Israel Defence Forces), he returned to Paris for his academic studies, and then he earned a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

From 1954 to 1965 he served as senior lecturer of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva and from 1965 to 1967 as professor. In 1967 he was visiting professor at the Hebrew University and in 1969 was appointed professor of history and international relations. Friedlander served as secretary to Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Jewish Congress, and later he became an assistant to Shimon Peres, then Israeli deputy defense minister and later Israeli Prime Minister and President of Israel.  

Friedlaender specialized in Nazi history. His works include itler et les Etats-Unis 1939-41 (1963); Prelude to Downfall: Hitler and the United States, (1967);  Pie XII et le III Reich (1964; Pius XII and the Third Reich, 1966) and Kurt Gerstein, l'ambiguite du bien (1967; Kurt Gerstein the Ambiguity of Good, 1969). In 1969 he published Reflexions sur l'avenir d'Israel. His research on the Holocaust was published as Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 (1997) and  Nazi Germany and the Jews:The Years of Extermination, 1939-1945 (2007). 

Friedlander was awarded the Israel Prize for history in 1983. In 2014, he was awarded the Dan David Prize from Tel Aviv University and Dan David Foundation (Tel Aviv) and the Edgar de Picciotto International Prize from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva) for lifetime achievement. 

Back, Samuel (1841-1899), rabbi and scholar, born in Hlohovec (Freystadt in German, Galgoc in Hungarian), Slovakia (then part of the Austrian Empire, later in Czecoslovakia). Back served as rabbi in Prague-Smichov from 1872. He wrote on philosophical, historical, and talmudical subjects. His published works include: Joseph Albos Bedeutung in der Geschichte der juedischen Religionsphilosophie (1869); Das Synhedrion unter Napoleon I (1879); Entstehungsgeschichte der portugiesischen Gemeinde in Amsterdam und Rabbi Menasse ben Israel (1883); Elischa  ben Abuja-Acher (1891); R. Meir Ben Baruch Aus Rothenburg: Sein Leben Und Wirken, Seine Schicksale Und Schriften  (1895); and "Die Fabel in Talmud und Midrasch" (in MGWJ, vols. 25, 29, 30, 33). Back also published sermons and eulogies as well as articles in learned periodicals.

Feuerstein, Bedřich (1892-1936), architect, painter and stage designer, born in Dobrovice (Dobrowitz, in German), Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). Having studied at gthe Czech Technical University in Prague, he moved to Paris, France, where he worked aith Auguste Perret. He was responsible for introducing elements of futurism and cubism in Czechoslovakia after World War I, as demonstrated in his design for the Institute of Military Geography in Prague (Ojenský zeměpisný ústav) (1924). During 1929-1931 he was in Tokyo, studying Japanese architecture. His stage designs for many plays produced in the National Theater in Prague, the satirical theater Osvobozene Divadlo, and other leading Czech theaters, showed great originality. Best known were his designs for Capek's R.U.R. (1920). Other buildings designed by him include a hospital in Tokyo, a shopping center in Yokohama, Japan, and a crematorium in Nymburk, Czech Republic. Feuerstein was a member of the artist association Devetsil (after 1922), and of the Artists Association Manes.

Following his suffering from a serious illness, Feuerstein committed suicide in 1936.  

Feder, Richard (1875-1970), rabbi and author, born in Václavice (Wazlawitz, in German), Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was educated at various schools in Benešov and Prague and then attended the Rabbinical seminary and Faculty of Philosophy in Vienna, Austria.  He served as rabbi in Kojetín, Louny,  Roudnice and then for more than thirty years he was a rabbi in Kolín.  During World War II he was deported to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt where he was active as a rabbi. After the Holocaust, he returned to Kolin and in from 1953 was chief rabbi of Moravia, residing in Brno, and from 1961 also chief rabbi of Bohemia, then in Czechoslovakia.

A prolific writer, Feder wrote popular works on Jewish lore and conducted research on the history of the communities of Roudnice nad Labem and Kolin. His main works are: Zidovska tragedie ("Jewish Tragedy," 1947), one of the first books published on the Holocaust; Zidovske besidky ("Jewish Tales"; several volumes) for children; Hebrejska ucebnice (1923), a textbook of Hebrew, also in German; Zide a krest'anstvi ("Jews and Christians," Prague, 1919): Zidovstvi a zide ("Jews and Judaism," 1955); and Sinai (1955), a textbook of Jewish religious instruction. In 1947 he dedicated a book, Židovská tragédie (The Jewish Tragedy), to the memory of the murdered members of the Jewish community of Kolín. He founded the tradition of annual commemorative meetings at Terezín. In 1965 the Czechoslovak state conferred on Feder a medal in recognition of his part in reconstruction of Bohemia-Moravia, and his "uncompromising stand in the fight against fascism and for peace".  

Herrmann, Hugo (1887-1940), Zionist, journalist, editor and author, born in Moravská Trěbově (Mahrisch-Triebau, in German), Czech Republic (then part of the Austria-Hungary). He studied Romance and German philology at the universities of Prague and Vienna. A secretary of the Zionist Organization of Bohemia from 1909 to 1912, he became one of the leaders of the Bar Kochba, the Zionist students' organization, and later went to Berlin, where he was editor of the Juedische Rundschau until 1914. He also edited there Chad Gadja, Das Pessachbuch (1914) and Moaus Zur. Ein Chanukkahbuch (with S. J. Agnon, 1918). Together with Nathan Birnbaum, he translated from Hebrew into German original records of the persecutions of the Jews during the Crusades, in Edom. Berichte juedischer Zeugen und Zeitgenossen ueber die Judenverfolgungen waahrend der Kreuzzuege (Berlin, 1919). From 1919 to 1922 he edited the Maahrisch Ostrau Juedisches  Volksblatt, and for several years he was director of the Palestine Foundation Fund in Czechoslovakia.  In 1934 he settled inJerusalem. His later writings  include: Palästinakunde, ein Hand und Nachschlagebuch (2^nd ed., 1935); Keren Hayessod, the Beginning of the Jewish Public Treasury (1939);, In jenen Jahren memoirs (vol. 1, 1938), a semiautobiographical work dealing with the history of his family and of the Jews in the small communities of Bohemia and Moravia. He also prepared a new handbook of Palestine for the Jesaias Press, and produced a map of Palestine published by the Palestine Foundation Fund.

Hermann died in Jerusalem.

Gruenfeld, Heinrich (1855-1931), cellist, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was a younger brother of Alfred Gruenfeld, the pianist and composer. Heinrich studied at the Prague Conservatory. In 1876, he went to Berlin, Germany, where he joined the faculty of the Kullak Academy. He gave many concerts throughout Europe, also appearing in joint recitals with Xaver Scharwenka and Gustav Hollander and then with Emile Sauret and Max Pauer.  He formed the Berlin Trio Association with the pianist Moritz Mayer and the violonist Alfred Wittenberg. .In 1886, he was appointed court cellist to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. He undertook - often together with his brother Alfred - numerous concert tours in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia., France and USA. He is the author of In Dur und Moll (1924).

Gruenfeld, Alfred (1852-1924), pianist and composer, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied the piano with Hoeger and Josef Krejčí at the Prague Conservatory, then with Theodor Kullak Academy in Berlin. Germany. He concertized extensively throughout Europe and the United States with great success. He played frequently for the Court at Vienna, and paid several visits to Russia. In 1873 Gruenfeld settled in Vienna and from 1897 he was a professor at the Vienna Conservatory. He composed an opera, Die schoenen von Fogaras, an operetta, Der Lebemann, and many pieces for the piano. Gruenfeld was probably the first famous pianist to make genuine commercial recordings. 

Heller, Maximilian (1860-1929), rabbi, an outstanding leader in the Reform Judaism, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). On both sides of his family he was descended from distinguished rabbis and scholars. He went to the United States in 1897, and after studying at the University of Cincinnati (B.L., 1882; M/L., 1884) and at the Hebrew Union College (ordained, 1884), he served for two years as associate to Rabbi Bernard Felsenthal of Chicago. In 1886 he became rabbi at Houston, Texas, but after five months received a call to Temple Sinai of New Orleans, where he served for more than forty years until his retirement in 1927.

In New Orleans, Heller was active in the civic and educational life of the community, especially in promoting the cause of education and in fighting for the abolition of the Louisiana State Lottery. From 1892 to 1896 he was a member of the State Board of Education, and he served on practically every board of the Jewish welfare and educational organizations in the city. In 1912 he was appointed professor of the Hebrew and Hebrew literature at Tulane University, where he served until his retirement in 1928. He was a charter member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and served as its president in 1909 to 1911. An enthusiastic advocate of Zionism from the beginning of the movement, he was prominent in the Zionist Organization of America, and was its honorary vice-president from 1911 until hid death.

Heller was a prolific journalist, he also was editor of the New Orleans Jewish Leader from 1896 to 1897, editorial writer for the Cincinnati American Israelite from 1902 to 1914, and a frequent contributor to the local press. He also wrote: The Temple Pulpit, a collection of his sermons; Jubilee Souvenir, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Temple Sinai (1922); My month in Palestine (edited posthumously by his son James G. Heller; New York, 1930).

Heller, Isidor (1816-1879), author, poet, and journalist, born in Mlada Bolesov (Jungbunzlau, in German), Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). After the age of sixteen he went to Prague, where he attended the Neustaadter Gymnasium, and the University of Prague. In 1837 he joined the French Foreign Legion. On his return to Bohemia he became a contributor to the magazines Ost und West and Libussa. In 1846 settled in Budapest whewre he srved as editor of Der Ungar. He also was the editor of Gustav Kuehne's Europa, in Leipzig, and the editor of the Budapest Morgenroete. (1848), until his opposition to the Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth forced him to leave for Germany.

Once again he came into conflict with the authorities because of his writings, and in 1852 he left the country as private secretary to an Austrian finance minister, Baron Bruck. In 1855 he went to Vienna, where he established the Fortschtrit (1859) and assisted in the founding of the Neues Fremdenblatt (1874). However, because of illness, he gave up writing, and spent the remaining fourteen years of his life in seclusion. Heller, whose novels and short stories were at one time widely read, include Gaange durch Prag, Das Judenbegraabnis, Dalibor, Erster April, Der Zeitgeist (Budapest, 1847), Die alliierten der Reaktion (Berlin, 1852), Oesterreichs Lage und Hilfsmittel (Leipzig, 1852), and Memoiren  des Baron Bruck (Vienna, 1877).

 Heller died in Arco, Tyrol, Austria.

Fuchs, Alfred (1892-1941), journalist and author, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). In his youth he was a Zionist, but later he became an assimilationist and edited publications, among themCechu Zidu Svaz, of the organized assimilationist movement of Czech Jews. Ultimately, he was baptized and became one of the leading Catholic publicists in Czechoslovakia. 

Fuchs learned Hebrew in order to read kabalistic literature, together with his friend, the Hassidic poet Jeri Mordechai Langer, but found greater affinity in the Catholic mystic philosophers. After a career with the Catholic press, he became head of the press department at the prime minister's office. In 1929 he was a member of the Senate for the Christian-Social Movement. He was a leading expert on canon law and published a number of penetrating studies on Vatican policy. Fuchs translated Hebrew Melodies by Heinrich Heine (together with Z. Kalista, the Ballads by W. Goethe and Janacek's Biography by Max Brod. 

Fuchs described his road to Catholicism in an autobiographical novel Oltar a rotacka ("Altar and Printing Press"). He never concealed his Jewish origin, and at the peak of the anti-Semitic wave during the Holocaust, he wrote that if he were forced to wear the yellow Star of David, he would wear that and his Vatican decorations with equal pride. In 1941 he was arrested by the Gestapo from a monastery where he had found refuge and was tortured to death in the Dachau Nazi concentration camp.

Frýd (formerly Fried), Norbert (or Nora) (1913-1976), writer, journalist, and diplomat, born in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary) into a family of merchants. He studied law and modern literature at the Charles University in Prague. He spent World War 2 in the Nazi concentration camps of Theresienstadt, Birkenau and Dachau. Fryd wrote several significant books about the Holocaust, of which, he was the only one of his family to survive.

A communist from his youth, he entered the Czechoslovak Foreign Service after the WW 2 and spent several years as cultural attaché in Mexico and then in other countries in Latin America. His tour of duty in Mexico inspired a novel based on the social struggle of the Mexican Indians, Studna supu ("Well of Vultures," 1953), and three fiercely anti-American works Mexiko je v Americe ("Mexico Is in America," 1952), Případ majora Hogana ("The Case of Major Hogan," 1952) and Usmevava Guatemala ("Smiling Guatemala," 1955). He recorded his experiences as an inmate of the Nazi death camps in his best novel, Krabice živých ("A Box of Living People," 1056). In 1963 Fryd received a government decoration for his literary achievements, and in 1966 was awarded one of the highest Czech literary prizes for a trilogy of novels dealing with the fate of several Jewish families from the Sudetenland: Vzorek bez ceny ("Sample without Value," 1966), Hedvábné starosti ("Silken Worries," 1968), and Omic narodu ("Ball of Nations"). Fryd was a delegate to UNESCO from 1951 until the early 1970's. 

Grotte, Alfred (1872-1943), professor, historian, conservator, and architect, born in Prague., Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary).  Grotte researched synagogal and cemetery architecture of the Jews, especially in Biala and Brzeg, Silesia. He resided in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, in Poland) and was a member of the educational council of the state architectural school. He planned a number of public and private buildings in Germany, including synagogues and Jewish welfare  institutions, and rendered special services by his numerous drawings of Jewish monuments through which he made valuable material accessible to historians of Jewish art. His publications in this field include: Synagogentypen vom elften bis neunzehnten Jahrhundert (1915); Biedermeier-Grabmaaler und ihre Beschriftung in der Ostmark (1916); Alte schlesische Judenfriedhoefe (1927). Grotte died in 1943 at the Theresienstadt) Nazi concentration camp.

חיים פולק (1834-1905), סופר ומחנך, נולד בליפטוסנמיקלוש, הונגריה (אז חלק מהאימפריה האוסטרית, (עכשיו ליפטובסקי סוויאטי מיקולס, סלובקיה). לאחר שקיבל חינוך תלמודי בעיר מולדתו, פולק למד בישיבות של פוז'וני, (פרשבורג, כיום ברטיסלבה, סלובקיה), שאטוראליה, הונגריה, וגם בפראג (כיום בצ'כיה). הוא לימד במגוון בבתי ספר ציבוריים יהודים בהונגריה, כולל זה של אובודה (Altofen), שבו הוא נשאר בסגל גם אחרי שבית הספר עבר לריבונותה של העיר בודפשט.

פולק היה מחברו של המילון ההונגרי-עברי הראשון (1880). בנוסף הוא פרסם תרגום להונגרית של "מבחר פנינים" של שלמה אבן-גבירול, "מגילת אנטיוכוס" (1886), "תיקון מידות הנפש" (1895), וספר בהונגרית על מנהגי האבלות בעם היהודי (1898). ספר זה תורגם לגרמנית בשנת 1902.

Naphtali Rosenthal (1727-1798), Talmudist, founder of the Jewish community of Mor, Hungary. While studying in Berlin, Germany. at the yeshiva of David Fraenkel, he made acquaintance of Moses Mendelssohn; they became friends and maintained the friendship by correspondence after Rosenthal had left Berlin. After staying in Prague, he later settled in Mor, where his house became a center of learning, hospitality, and traditional Judaism. An atmosphere of religious study permeated his household; even his wife was acquainted with biblical and talmudic passages in the original. His son-in-law, F. Gomperz, assisted him in the management of the yeshiva of Mor. Rosenthal’s public activities were not confined to his own community; he was also the spokesman of the whole of Hungarian Jewry at the court of Vienna under Emperor Joseph II and the two subsequent monarchs.

Naphtali Rosenthal is the father of Salomon Rosenthal (1764-1845), a scholar. 

Alfred Justitz (1879-1934), Modernist painter, illustrator and graphic artist, born in Nová Cerekev, Bohemia, Czech Republic (then part of the Austria-Hungary). He studied first architecture and then painting at the Academy in Prague and, from 1905, in Karlsruhe and Berlin, Germany. In 1910 he settled temporarily in Paris, where he was greatly influenced by impressionist theories of form, retaining at the same time, however, his decorative lyricism. After serving in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I, he returned to Prague and became one of the founders of modern Czechoslovak art. In 1920 and 1921 he participated in the exhibitions of the most important avant-garde group of that time in Prague, which called itself “Tvrdosijni” (“The Stubborn Ones”). He was again in Berlin and Paris in 1922 and 1923, but in 1924 he returned to Prague, where he spent the rest of his life. His best paintings – “Men in Landscape” (1914), “Head of a Dancer” (1922), “Road between Barns” (1924), and “Tree Men” (1926) – are in the Prague National Gallery. Alfred Justitz died in Bratislava. 

Jacob Ben Joseph Reischer (also kbown as Jacob Backofen) (c. 1670-1733), rabbi, halakhic authority, and author, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied under Aaron Simeon Spira, rabbi of Prague, and was known as a prodigy in his early youth. Afterward he studied under Spira’s son, Benjamin Wolf Spira, av bet din of the Prague community and rabbi of Bohemia, whose son-in-law he subsequently became. His brothers-in-law were Elijah Spira and David Oppenheim. Reischer’s surname, born by his grandfather and uncles (see introduction to his Minhat Ya’akov, Prague, 1689), derives from the fact that his family came from Rzeszow, Poland, and not, as has been erroneously stated, because he served as rabbi of that town.

While still Young, he became dayyan of the “great bet din of Prague.” He was appointed av bet din of Ansbach, Bavaria, and head of its yeshiva in 1709, and in 1715 av bet din of Worms. There, students flocked to him from all parts of Europe. He had, however, opponents who persecuted him. About 1718, he was appointed av bet din and head of the yeshivah of the important community of Metz. There, too, he did not find peace. He related that in 1728 “malicious men, as hard as iron, who hated me without cause, set upon me with intent to destroy me by a false libel, to have me imprisoned.” His first work, Minhat Ya’akov, was published, while he was still young, in Prague in 1690. In the course of time he was accepted by contemporary rabbis as a final authority (Shevut Ya’akov vol. no. 28; vol. 3, no. 61), and problems were addressed to him from the whole Diaspora, e.g. Italy, and also from Erez Israel (ibid., vol. 1, nos. 93 and 99) He made a point of defending the Rishonim from the criticism of later writers, and endeavored to justify the Shulhan Arukh against its critics. But there were also those, particularly among the Sephardi rabbis of Jerusalem, who openly censured his habit of criticizing Rishonim and Aharonim (ibid., vol. 1, no. 22), and criticized him in their works. His replies to those criticisms were not always couched in moderate language (see Lo Hibbit Aven be-Ya’akov). The main target of his criticism was Joseph b. David of Breslau, author of Hok Yosef (Amsterdam, 1730).

Ernst Pribram (1879-1940), serologist, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). In 1911 he established himself in Vienna as specialist for general and experimental pathology, became assistant professor at the University of Vienna in 1915, and was appointed associate professor at the University of Chicago, Rush Medical College, in 1925. From 1928 he was professor of bacteriology and preventive medicine at Loyola University, Chicago. Pribram occupied himself with studies of bacteriology, serology, colloid chemistry, pharmacology, physiology and pathology. He died in Chicago.

His numerous published works include: Darstellung der Antikcoerper mittels chemischer und physikalischer Methoden (together with M.V. Eisler); “Haamotoxine und Antihaamotoxine der Bakterien” (in Handbuch der pathologischen Mikroorganismen, 1913); Anlegung und Pflege einer Kulturensammlung," ibid., 1930); ”Die wichtigsten Methoden beim Arbeiten mit Bacterien" (in Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitmethoden, 1925); Culture Media for Bacteria und Fungi (1925); Classification of Bacteria (1933).

Vojtěch Rakous (pseudonym of Adalbert Österreicher) (1862-1935), author, born in Starý Brázdim (now Brazdim), Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire), the son of Salamon Österreicher and  Barbara nee Pollákov. He attended the yeshiva in Brazim, then in 1898 he settled in Prague. He published some short stories in serious mood, such as Na rozcesti (“At the Crossroads”) and Stryc Vaclav (“Uncle Wenceslas”), but is best remembered as a writer with a sense of comedy. He published in a number of newspapers and periodicals, among them Paleček, Naše hlasy, Národní listy, Českožidovské listy, Českožidovský kalendář, Rozvoj, Hlas národa, Besedy Času and Tribuna.

In the four volumes of humorous tales entitled Vojkovicti a prespolni (“Those from Vojkovice and Those from Elsewhere,” 1911), Rakous vividly portrayed Jewish life in the Czech villages. The volume featuring, Shlemiel, Motke, and his domineering wife, Rezi, became a popular classic and was later dramatized and filmed. The stories also shed important light on Jewish-Christian relations in Czech villages at the turn of the century.

Jacob Eduard Polak (1820-1891), physician and writer, born in Mořina ((Groß-Morschin, Groß-Morzin, in German), Bohemia, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied medicine and science in Prague and Vienna. In 1851 was invited to Teheran, Iran, by Amir Kabir, the Persian chief minister, as the instructor of Dar ul-Fonun, the first modern higher education institution in Iran, to serve as professor of anatomy and surgery at the military college. He learned the Persian language in six months and traught his courses in that language. In 1856 he was appointed court physician to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (also Nassereddin Shah Qajar),King of Persia. Polak returned to Vienna in 1860 and was associated with the general hospital there acting as lecturer in Persian at the University of Vienna. When Naser al-Din toured Europe in 1872 he visited Polak, who is mentioned in the shah’s “Diary” as his “good old friend.” Polak wrote a number of important treatises in Persian on anatomy, surgery, ophthalmology, and military medicine, some of which became standard works. He also compiled a medical dictionary in Persian, Arabic, and Latin in order to provide the Persian language with a system of medical terminology, and composed a much-used dictionary, Deutsch-persiches Konversationswoerterbuch (1914).

A faithful and devoted Jew, Polak used his prestige and influence at the court of the shah in favor of his coreligionists. He drew the attention of European Jewry to the plight of the Jews in Persia at the time and proposed that the Alliance Israelite Universelle should send a Jewish representative to Teheran or establish a Jewish school there, as was ultimately done. Polak wrote extensively on various aspects of Jewish life in Persia (Iran); Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner (1865) and other publications contain important information about the Jews.

Joachim (formerly Haim) Elder Von Popper (1720-1795), banker, manufacturer, and co-lessee of the profitable tobacco monopolyת born in Breznice (Breznitz in German, Bohemia, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire) He moved to Prague and in 1775 he is mentioned as holding his father’s position in perpetuity. He attended the Leipzig fair as early as 1744. He became a co-lessee of the tobacco monopoly under Empress Maria Theresia of Austria, and although he was a Jew obtained permission from Emperor Joseph II to buy houses in Prague and Pilsen. As a result of the influence which he came to wield among his coreligionists, Popper was appointed head of Bohemian Jewry in 1775.

Joachim Popper was a patron of literature and also donated large sums to philanthropy, maintaining a balance between Christian and Jewish causes. In 1790 he was ennobled as Elder von Popper in recognition of his contributions to the welfare of the state. On the day he received his patent of nobility he presented a petition to Leopold II requesting the introduction in Bohemia of the more liberal Judenpatent of Galicia, which included obligatory military service for Jews. However, a group of Prague Jews presented a counter proposal arguing against conscription. Popper suggested reform of the system of taxation in 1792, the same year he resigned from office. On his death he bequeathed large sums to charity, and provided for the creation of a synagogue in his home in which prayer and study were to be subsidized perpetually. He also stipulated that his firm continue to bear his name.

Friedrich Popper (1848- ?), naval engineer, born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was appointed director of naval construction in 1902, naval constructor-general in 1904 and chief engineer with the rank of rear admiral. He supervised the building of many Austrian warships, several of which he himself designed. He received the Gold Cross of Merit (1887), the Ritterkreuz of the Franz Joseph Order (1895), and the Komthurkreuz of the Franz Joseph Order upon his retirement (1907). When anti-Semitism grew at the Vienna Technische Hochschule, he returned to this institution the honorary doctor’s diploma which it had awarded him.