Moses Schorr

Who was Moses Schorr?

Moses Schorr, Polish: Mojżesz Schorr was a rabbi, Polish historian, politician, Bible scholar, assyriologist and orientalist. Schorr was one of the top experts on the history of the Jews in Poland. He was the first Jewish researcher of Polish archives, historical sources, and pinkasim. The president of the 13th district B'nai B'rith Poland, he was a humanist and reform rabbi who ministered the central synagogue of Poland during its last years before the Holocaust.

Schorr was the first historian to undertake the systematic study of Jewish history in Poland, and Galicia in particular. He made discoveries after finding and translating Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite legislative annals. As a scholar of the jurisprudence and civilizations of the Ancient Middle East, Schorr was a legal philosopher and sociologist of Ancient Middle Eastern societies. Schorr was appointed to the Polish Senate by Polish president Ignacy Mościcki. Schorr did not belong to any political party, although he was inclined to Zionism. He was active in the social, public, and religious life of Polish Jews, and was often chosen by them to head public organisations and represent Polish Jewry to Polish and international powers, though he never sought this role for himself.