Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hirsch, Samuel

HIRSCH, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Thalfingen, Prussia, 8 June, 1815; d. in Chicago, Ill., 14 May, 1889. He received his training at Metz, and attended the universities of Berlin and Leipsic. He was appointed chief rabbi of Luxemburg in 1843, and in 1866 was called to Philadelphia as rabbi of the Congregation Kenesseth Israel. He was a very active promoter of radical reform among American Jews, and took a chief part in rabbinical conferences. He was an industrious contributor to the early volumes of the “Jewish Times” (1869-'78), but published nothing in book-form after he came to the United States. His principal works were issued in Germany, among them his “What is Judaism?” (1838); a collection of sermons (1841); and “Religious Philosophy of the Jews” (1843).