Samuel Adler

Filling the position of district rabbi and temple preacher in Lemberg after the assassination of Rabbi Abraham Kohn in 1848 was a difficult task. The first applicant, Samuel Adler, was district rabbi of Alzey, Germany, and a known religious reformer; however, he reneged on the contract and subsequently accepted the position of rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York. Based on newly discovered archival documents, this chapter provides the background to Adler’s candidacy, the efforts to hire him in Lemberg, and the subsequent direction the community council took in filling rabbinic positions in the city. It shows how the various decisions of the council were the result both of internal community considerations and of changes in the political atmosphere of Galicia and the Habsburg empire

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