Rabbi Solomon Poliatschek, Famous Talmud Authority, Passes at Age of 51

Rabbi Solomon Poliatschek, dean of the Talmudic Department of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, internationally known authority on Halacha, died Sunday night after a brief illness at the Sydenham Hospital, New York. Death came after an operation performed by Dr. A. A. Berg of Mount Sinai Hospital, when it was found that the Rabbi suffered from ostoomyelitis of the jaw which resulted from an abscessed tooth.

Extensive arrangements were made for the funeral which will take place today.

Rabbi Poliatschek, who came to the United States seven years ago at the invitation of the Yeshiva, was counted as one of the Gaonim of the present age. He was born 51 years ago in Meitshet, Lithuania, and started his Talmudic training at the age of 12 in the Yeshiva of Wolozhyn. He soon acquired fame as the “Illui of Meitshet,” by which name he was called up to the day of his death. He was the most beloved pupil of Rabbi Chaim of Grest-Litovsk. He held the position of Rabbi in Brest. Later, he was invited to become the dean of the Talmudic school of the Yeshiva in Lida, district of Vilna, where he remained until the outbreak of the World War.

In the New York Yeshiva he instructed students in the Talmud four times weekly and attracted a large number of pupils, enjoying the great respect of Orthodox rabbis for the depth of his Talmudic expositions. He was the author of a number of works.

His widow, three daughters and two sons survive him.

The German film “The City Without Jews,” which was banned last week by the New York State motion picture censors just before it was to be shown at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse, has been passed by James W. Wingate, head of the board, and will have its premiere at the same theater where it was to have been offered just a week ago.

The reviewers originally saw the film on June 28. They recomended it be rejected. Application was made for rescreening before Mr. Wingate, who saw it in Albany last Monday. He said that with the elimination of some scenes he believed the picture would be unobjectionable. The film was shown again after deletions had been made, and the license was issued.

Jacob S. Pearlstein, educational director of the Jewish Centers Association of Detroit since March, 1927, was appointed director of research and community organization of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Cleveland.

Mr. Pearlstein succeeds Dr. John Slawson, who will go to Detroit Sept. 1 as managing director of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit to succeed Morris D. Waldman, who is at that time to assume the executive secretaryship of the American Jewish Committee.