European Notes
A special jubilee volume has been issued here for the occasion of the 60th birthday of Chief Rabbi Dr. Ehrenpreis, which occurred last month. The volume, which is published by the “Judisk Tidskrift,” includes articles on Dr. Ehrenpreis by Dr. Martin Buber, Zalman Schneuer, the famous poet, Elkan N. Adler, Paul Goodman, Dr. Jacob Klatzkin, Vladimir Grossman, and others. There is also a collection of messages sent from all parts of the world congratulating Chief Rabbi Ehrenpreis on his 60th birthday. There are messages from ex-King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, where Dr. Ehrenpreis was Chief Rabbi before he went to Stockholm, Chief Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz, the Haham Dr. M. Gaster, Professor S. Dubnov, Nahum Sokolow, Chief Rabbi Jacob Meir of Palestine, Chief Rabbi Dr. M. Friediger of Copenhagen, Chief Rabbi Professor Schorr of Warsaw, Professor Elbogen, of the Berlin High School for Jewish Learning, Dr. M. Vishnitzer, for the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, Madame Selma Lagerloef, the famous Swedish novelist, Herr Jacob Wasserman, the German novelist, Sholom Ash, the Yiddish author, M. Edmond Fleg, the French poet, Professor Simonsen of Copenhagen, Chief Rabbi Dr. Alkalav of Serbia, Professor Moses Bensabat Amzalak, President of the Jewish Community of Lisbon, Chief Rabbi Chaim Bejarano Effendi of Turkey, Rabbi Dr. Eisenstadt, Rabbi of the Russian Jewish Community in Paris, Rabbi Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Professor Richard Gottheil of New York, Rabbi Deputy Dr. Thon of Cracow, M. M. Ussischkin, M. Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv, Herman Bernstein, and Professor Popoff, Bulgarian Ambassador in Berlin.
Ex-King Ferdinand in his message recalls the Scroll of the Law which Chief Rabbi Ehrenpreis at the time he was Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria presented to him, and which, he says, besides many other valuable memories, recalls to him also the personality of Dr. Ehrenpreis. As the spiritual leader of the Bulgarian Jews, ex-King Ferdinand says, he rendered exceptionally great services.
Chief Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz, writing for the Jewish Historical Society of England and the Federation of Jewish Relief Organizations, and in his own name, speaks of Dr. Ehrenpreis as having been recognized for over a generation as a notable force in the neo-Hebrew revival and a worthy representative and able champion of Jewry in the important historical communities of which he has been the leader.
We have known each other, Dr. Stephen S. Wise writes, since the beginning of the Zionist movement, and I remember with very great pleasure his appearance at the early Zionist Congresses and his helpful participation.
Our acquaintance started, Elkan N. Adler writes, when he met the late
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Dr. Paul Nathan, Dr. Bernhard Kahn and myself in Sofia on January 14, 1913. We were delegated by the Union de Associations des Israelites to organize relief for Jewish war victims in the Balkans and Turkey. Nothing was so impressive as the high respect and great influence enjoyed by Dr. Ehrenpreis, then Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria. He met the Ministers of the Crown on an equal and intimate footing and when he presented us to the King and Queen who gave us audiences, it was evident that Royalty viewed him with special favor. The world war in which Dr. Ehrenpreis did not see eye to eye with Bulgarian statesmen, induced him to leave the Balkans for the wider, more intellectual and more tranquil atmosphere of Scandinavia. In Stockholm, he was able to do good and great work for the benefit of our co-religionists in unhappy Europe.
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