Gruenwald, Moritz

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GRUENWALD, MORITZ

GRUENWALD, MORITZ (1853–1895), Czech rabbi and scholar. Gruenwald was born in Ungarisch-Hradisch, Moravia. He studied at the Breslau rabbinical seminary and served as rabbi in various cities, among them Pisek, Bohemia, 1887–93, before becoming chief rabbi of Bulgaria, residing in Sofia, in 1893. He also directed and taught at the Sofia rabbinical seminary.

In 1881 Gruenwald founded and edited until 1885 Das Juedische Zentralblatt Zugleich Archiv… Boehmen (1882–85), a periodical intended for the congregations in which he served. He published a number of books, including Einfluss der Bibel auf die Bildung von Redensarten in europaeischen Sprachen (1883); Zur romanischen Dialektologie, on Ladino and Rashi's Lo'azim (1883), and works on Czech Jewish history.