Hirschel Levin
Rabbi Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin (also known as Hart Lyon and Hirshel Löbel; 1721 – 26 August 1800) was Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Berlin, and Rabbi of Halberstadt and Mannheim, known as a scholarly Talmudist.
Life
He was born in Rzeszów, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to Aryeh Löb and Miriam Lowenstam. His father was rabbi at Amsterdam and his mother was daughter of Rabbi Chacham Zvi Ashkenazi. He was a descendant of Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm.[1]
Levin was a distinguished Talmudist, and in 1751 he threw himself into the struggle between Jacob Emden (who was, in fact, his uncle) and Jonathan Eybeschütz, naturally siding with the former. His epistles against Eybeschütz made such an impression that in 1756 he was elected Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London. He resigned in 1763, and accepted the rabbinate of Halberstadt. He was succeeded as Chief Rabbi by Rabbi Meshullam Solomon and Rabbi Tevele Schiff, rival claimants appointed by dissenting factions in the Jewish community of London. Lyon afterward became rabbi of Mannheim, and in 1772 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Berlin. He was a great friend of Moses Mendelssohn.
Levin began in 1782 to persecute Naphtali Hirz Wessely for his Divre Shalom ve-Emet. He prohibited the printing of that work, and insisted upon the expulsion of the author from Berlin.
His glosses on the Talmud appear in the Vilna edition under the name of Rabbi Tsvi Hersh Berlin. His son, Rabbi Solomon Hirschell was also Chief Rabbi of the British German and Polish Jewish community, and the first of the British empire.[2] His other son, Saul Berlin, was a Talmudist and notorious forger of the Besamim Rosh.[3]
References
- ↑ Oxford DNB entry Hilary L. Rubinstein, ‘Lyon, Hart (1721–1800)’, first published 2004; online edn, Oct 2006, 852 words, with portrait illustration "Lyon, Hart [Hirsch Lewin or Loebel] (1721–1800), rabbi"
- ↑ The Jews of Georgian England, 1714-1830 Todd M. Endelman - 1999 "In 1801, when the Ashkenazi synagogues of London were discussing the hiring of a new Chief Rabbi, the privileged members of the Hambro ... Hirschell's father, Hirschel Levin, the former Chief Rabbi in London, was then Rabbi of Berlin."
- ↑ Adele Berlin, Maxine Grossman - The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion 2011 - Page 123 "BERLIN, SHA'UL BEN TSEVI HIRSCH (1740–1794), German rabbi and Haskalah sympathizer. Son of the chief rabbi of Berlin, Hirschel Levin, he was ordained rabbi at the age of twenty by several distinguished authorities."
External links
- Hirschel Ben Aryeh Löb Levin at the Jewish Encyclopedia
- Roth, Cecil. "The Rabbinate of Hart Lyon, 1758-1764". History of the Great Synagogue.
- The British Chief Rabbinate
| Jewish titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Aaron Hart |
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain 1758–1764 |
Succeeded by David Tevele Schiff Meshullam Solomon |
|