BAECK, SAMUEL:

By: Isidore Singer

German rabbi; born at Kromau, Moravia, April 1, 1834. His father, Nathan, was rabbi in Kromau; his grandfather, Abraham, rabbi in Holitsch, Hungary. Baeck married the daughter of Abraham Platschek, chief rabbi of Moravia, and the son of this union, Leon, is also a rabbi. After being educated in the public schools of Kromau and at the Talmudical schools of Nikolsburg (Moravia) and Presburg (Hungary), Baeck studied at the University of Vienna, continuing his Talmudic studies under R. Horwitz. After receiving his diploma as rabbi from the chief rabbi Placzek of Boskowitz, he was appointed rabbi at Böhmisch Leipa, and was afterward called as rabbi to the celebrated community of Lissa, province of Posen, which position he holds at present (1902). He is a member of the municipal school committee and of the "Waisenrat," instructor in the Jewish religion at the gymnasium, and is a delegate to the Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeindebund. He was the first to advocate with success the introduction of the teaching of the Jewish religion in the colleges of Prussia. The published works of Samuel Baeck are: "Inder und Hebräer"; "Erzählungen und Religionssätze der Heiligen Schrift," Lissa, 1875, 2d ed. 1886; "Systematische Religionssätze der Heiligen Schrift," ib. 1875; "Geschichte des Jädischen Volkes und Seiner Literatur vom Babylonischen Exile bis auf die Gegenwart," ib. 1878, 2d ed., 1894; "Die Halachistische und Responsen Literatur, die Literatur der Darshanim, Sittenlehrer, und Apologeten," in Winter and Wünsche, "Jüdische Literatur," vols. ii. and iii.

S.