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Moses, Adolph

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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American rabbi; born at Kletchevo, Prussian Poland, May 3, 1840; died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 7, 1902. He was a son of Israel Baruch Moses, from whom he received his early Talmudic training. For three years he attended the yeshibah and then went to Schrimm and Militsch in Silesia, where he continued his Jewish studies. Afterward he entered the university and the rabbinical seminary at Breslau. While still a student at the seminary his sympathies were drawn toward the Italian struggle for liberty, and in 1859 he enlisted in Garibaldi's army. In the following year he returned to Breslau, but at the outbreak of the first Polish insurrection in 1863 he joined the revolutionary forces, serving as a commissioned officer in that struggle until it was suppressed, when he was imprisoned by the Russians. His experiences of prison life are incorporated in his novel "Luser Segermacher" (translated into English by Mrs. A. de V. Chandron). Upon his release Moses returned to Germany, and at Frankfort-on-the Main he studied under Abraham Geiger, whose Reform tendencies he followed. For two years he taught in the academy at Seegnitz, Bavaria. In 1870 he received a call to the rabbinate of Montgomery, Ala., and in the next year was elected rabbi at Mobile, Ala.

At Mobile, Moses remained for ten years, until 1881, when he responded to a call from the community of Louisville, Ky. This post he held until his death. Moses was specially interested in the education of the blind, and served for many years as commissioner of the Kentucky institutions for the blind. Toward the end of his life he studied medicine and received the degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Louisville. Moses was a frequent contributor to the Jewish press and was the editor, in conjunction with his brother Isaac S. Moses and Emil G. Hirsch, of the weekly "Zeitgeist" (1880-82). He was the author of "Nadab and Abihu" (1890) and "The Religion of Moses" (Louisville, 1894). A memorial volume containing a biography of him and a number of his essays and sermons was published by H. G. Enelow (Louisville, 1903).