The New International Encyclopædia/Hirsch, Emil Gustav

HIRSCH, Emil Gustav (1852—). An American rabbi, born in Luxemburg, the son of a prominent Jewish theologian who in 1866 became minister of the Reformed Congregation in Philadelphia. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1872 went to Berlin for post-graduate work. He was rabbi in Baltimore (1877), and in Louisville, Ky. (1878-80), but did his greatest work in Chicago, whither he went in 1880 as minister of the Sinai Congregation. He took some part in politics as a member of the Republican Party; was president of the Chicago Public Library Board (1888-97); and in 1892 became professor of rabbinical literature in the University of Chicago. From 1880 to 1887 he edited the Milwaukee Zeitgeist, and then undertook the editorial charge of the Reform Advocate. As a lecturer and writer he is closely connected with advanced Judaism and with philanthropy.