Chief Rabbi J. H. Hertz has arrived in the United States incognito and has been visiting here with his mother and several relatives.
Dr. Hertz has persistently refused to be interviewed and such requests have been parried with the statement that he is not here in any official capacity. Neither through the post office nor by telephone has it been possible to reach the Chief Rabbi of England directly.
Dr. Hertz, who was born in Czecho-Slovakia, was brought to New York by his parents as a child. He received his education at New York City College, Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Dr. Hertz’s first rabbinical post was in Syracuse, N. Y., a post he held until 1898, when he was appointed spiritual leader of the Wittwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation in Johannesburg.
In 1911, Rabbi Hertz was expelled from Transvaal by President Kruger for his pro-British sympathies. There upon Rabbi Hertz returned to the United States, where he became rabbi of Congregation Orach Chayim of New York. In 1913, he was named Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the British Empire.
Dr. Hertz’s brother in New York, Emanuel Hertz, is a well known bibliophile.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
