Isak Elbogen
Isak Elbogen was a Czech rabbi. He worked in the synagogue in Smíchov and for almost his entire professional career as a regional rabbi of the Jewish community in Mladá Boleslav, then one of the most important in Bohemia.He was born into the family of Rabbi Josef Elbogen and his wife Ludmilla in Smíchov in Bohemia. He had two brothers – Jakob and Lazar, and four sisters – Anna, Rosalia, Amalie and Johanna.
He first studied at the local gymnasium, and between 1834 and 1836 completed a three-year degree course at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, graduating in 1841 as Doctor of Philosophy. Around this time he also received semicha from the beth din in Prague, which was led by Rabbi Samuel Lobe Kauder.Career
Elbogen first worked in his native Smíchov. In 1843, he left Smíchov to become regional rabbi in Mladá Boleslav where he worked for 37 years, retiring in 1880. He died three years later in Vienna and is buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery.Works
Elbogen was known an expert on the Talmud and the Mishnah. His book שעשועים בחדרי המשנה מענה חדות ששה סדרי משנה was published in Prague in 1865. He also wrote a selicha commemorating the great fire of the Mladá Boleslav Jewish Quarter and the synagogue on Shabbat, 28 May 1859 entitled סליחות לזכרון האש אשר יצאה בעיר יונגבונצלויא בים שבת קודש, which, until its destruction just before the Second World War, was read aloud annually in Mladá Boleslav synagogue.He married Friederike Pokorny. They had a son, Guido Elbogen, who went into banking and became President of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Vienna. Guido's son Heinrich was a sport shooter who represented Austria in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Guido's daughter Jenny Weleminsky was an Esperantist and translator, whose work was published in the Budapest Esperanto-language magazine, Literatura Mondo.