Jonathan Alexandersohn

Who is Jonathan Alexandersohn?

Jonathan Alexandersohn was a German-Hungarian rabbi.

About 1830 he was rabbi in Schwerin-on-the-Warthe, whence he removed to Hungary. Here Götz Kohn, rabbi of Baja and a native of Schwerin, recommended him to the congregation of Csaba, in the county of Borsod, which elected him rabbi in 1833. His violent temper soon made him many enemies. He pronounced a decree of divorce which brought upon him the enmity of the rabbi of Szántó, Eleazar Löw, whose contention was that no divorce had ever been pronounced in Csaba, because of the uncertainty of the Hebrew transliteration of the name, and therefore it was not lawful to grant a divorce in this place. Alexandersohn's enemies were encouraged by this contention to bring charges against him, and prevailed upon Löw to try him for heresy and for violations of the dietary and ritual laws. He was accused of disbelieving in a hereafter; of saying that he would take a lenient view in all legal questions; of sleeping bareheaded; of walking four cubits from his bed without washing his hands; and of other violations of Jewish rites. In 1835 a court, composed of three rabbis, declared him unworthy of the rabbinical office.