Mordecai Ehrenpreis

Who was Mordecai Ehrenpreis?

Mordecai Ehrenpreis was a Hebrew author, publisher, Rabbi and Zionist.

He was born in Lviv and started already as a young man to write in Yiddish, studied later at German universities and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. Since 1884 he worked for the Ha-Maggid and Ha-Meliz. From 1896 to 1900 he was a rabbi in Đakovo, Croatia. Still before Herzl, Ehrenpreis, Birnbaum and others were engaged to define the concept of a new national Judaism. Mordecai Ehrenpreis was an early adherent to Zionism and helped Herzl to establish the first Zionist Congress. He was a member of the Democratic Faction of the World Zionist Organization and on the editorial board of the Jüdische Almanach.

From 1900 to 1914 he was in Sofia as Chief rabbi of Bulgaria and also publisher of several Spaniolic magazines. After 1908 his interest in zionism and in the Hebrew literature decreased noticeably which earned him some criticism; he devoted himself to other literary works and to his tasks as a Rabbi. From 1914 up to his death he was Chief rabbi of Stockholm.

In 1928 he founded the Judisk Tidskrift, was engaged as a translator as well as scientific writer for different encyclopedias, since 1935 he became a professor at Stockholm University. During his time in Sweden he published some 20 books in Swedish.