1861-1866 Senior Rabbi at Keneseth Israel
David Einhorn was born in Diespeck, Germany November 10, 1809. At the age of 17, he earned his Rabbinic ordination from the Rabbinic school of Fürth in Bavaria, Germany; the center for Jewish learning at this time. He continued his studies at the Universities of Erlangen, Munich and Würzburg. He later held the position of Chief Rabbi of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (in Northern Germany). In 1852, he was called to lead the Reform congregation in Pesth, Hungary. Rabbi Einhorn was one of the early Jewish Reformers in Europe. He was able to have an impact at the Frankfort Rabbinical Conference in 1845, Einhorn strongly pushed for having services in the vernacular and for cutting out all references to the restoration of the sacrifices and a Jewish state. David …show more content…
He stood in contrast to this opinion based on his training in Germany before he came to America.
In 1856, Rabbi Einhorn published Sinai, a German language magazine, devoted to Reform Judaism. He expressed his beliefs supporting anti-slavery, opposing Interfaith marriage, wearing tefillin (collective term for Jewish phylacteries) , limitations of activity on Shabbat and kosher dietary laws. In the Sinai magazine he thought that interfaith marriage was "a nail in the coffin of the small Jewish race". He supported keeping the portions of the Torah, which spoke to being a moral person.
After an angry mob surrounded his house following a particularly fiery Abolitionist sermon in 1861, his congregation encouraged him and his family to seek refuge in the north. Rabbi Einhorn came to Philadelphia and was promptly hired as K.I.'s Senior Rabbi. He was given freedom of the pulpit and continued his anti-slavery sermons. He agreed to preach three times a month and to supervise and teach in the religious