Hirschel Levin Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Rabbi
Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin
Birth Date:1721
Birth Place:Rzeszów, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Death Date:26 August 1800
Nationality:Polish
Occupation:Rabbi
Known For:Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and Berlin
Chief Rabbi
Predecessor:Aaron Hart (Great Britain)
Parents:Aryeh Löb and Miriam Lowenstam
Children:Solomon Hirschell, Saul Berlin

Rabbi Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin (also known as Hart Lyon and Hirshel Löbel; 1721 – 26 August 1800) was Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and of 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]

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]

External links

Notes and References

  1. [Hilary L. Rubinstein]
  2. 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."
  3. 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."