Adolf Kurrein (January 28, 1846 – October 23, 1919) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, Zionistic activist.

Early life

Kurrein lost his father when he was two and grew up with his sister Katharina and his mother, a seamstress. When he was fifteen he moved to

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

where he graduated in 1866. He then went to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

where he received his

doctor's degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

Career

He was rabbi of

St. Pölten ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

(in 1872), of

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

(from 1876 to 1882), of

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...

(from 1882 to 1888), and in the last-named year was called in the same capacity to

Teplice Teplice () (until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; german: Teplitz-Schönau or ''Teplitz'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest Czech spa town, after Karlovy Vary. The his ...

. Kurrein edited the monthly ''"Jüdische Chronik"'' from 1894 to 1896 with S. Stern and I. Ziegler, and from 1897 to 1902 alone. During the last 4 years this periodical has advocated Zionism. He was a contributor of the

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

Writing

Kurrein is a disciple of

Adolf Jellinek Adolf Jellinek ( he, אהרן ילינק ''Aharon Jelinek''; 26 June 1821 in Drslavice, Moravia – 28 December 1893 in Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig (1845–1856), he became a preacher at t ...

. Besides several collections of sermons, entitled respectively ''"Maggid Mereshit"'' (1880); ''"Maggid le-Adam"'' (1882); ''"Patriarchenbilder: I., Abraham"'' (1893), he is the author of the following pamphlets: * "Die Frau im Jüdischen Volke" (1885; 2d ed., Bilin, 1901) * "Traum und Wahrheit", a biography of Joseph (1887) * "Arbeit und Arbeiter" (1890) * "Die Sociale Frage im Judentume" (1890) * "Die Pflichten des Besitzes" (1892) * "Der Friede" (1892) * "Das Kaddisch" (1896) * "Der Grabstein" (1897) * "Judäa und Rom" (1898) * "Bibel, Heidentum, und Heidenbekehrung" (1899; 2d. ed., 1901) * "Brauchen die Juden Christenblut?" (1900) * "Lichtstrahlen aus den Reden Jellinek's", prepared by him for Jellinek's 70th birthday

Family

He married Jessie Loewe in 1877, the daughter of

Louis Loewe Louis Loewe (1809–1888; also Louis Löwe) was a Silesian linguist. He served as principal and director of Judith Theological College for twenty years; he was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Numismatic Society and of the Asiatic Socie ...

. Two of their five children were murdered in the concentration camp

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. His son Viktor Kurrein (1881-1974) was also a rabbi in

until he fled to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1938.

External links

''Dr. Peter Kraft: Geschichte der Juden in Oberösterreich'' ('Presentation of the history of Jews in Upper Austria')

Kurrein Jewish Encyclopedia entry (published 1901-1906, in the Public Domain)

''Jüdische Chronik'', (B180)
a digitized periodical published by Kurrein, at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

References

* 1846 births 1919 deaths Austro-Hungarian rabbis Czech rabbis Zionist activists People from Třebíč {{Austria-rabbi-stub