Kallir (Kallier), Meier

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KALLIR (Kallier), MEIER

KALLIR (Kallier ), MEIER (d. 1875), banker and politician in Brody (Galicia; now Ukraine). Son of Alexander Kallir, an émigré from Germany, Meier managed the banking business established by his father. He served as chairman of the Board of Commerce and Trade several times and in 1853 as deputy mayor of Brody. In 1848 he was elected to the Galician Landtag (Diet), and served as a deputy once more from 1861 to 1867. Together with two other Jewish deputies Kallir introduced the proposal for the emancipation of the Jews in 1861. Also active in the Jewish community of Brody, he supported agricultural settlement of the Galician Jews on the plains, publishing an appeal entitled Galiẓyah Kol Titten. However, since Orthodox Jewry opposed it, the project was never realized. Meier's son nathan von kallir (1821–1886), also a deputy in the Galician Landtag (1870–73), was a noted philanthropist.

bibliography:

Ph. Friedman, Die galizischen Juden im Kampfe um ihre Gleichberechtigung (1929), index; M. Balaban, Dzieje Żydów w galicyi i w Rzeczypospolitej Krakowskiej (1916), index; M. Weissberg, in: mgwj, 57 (1913), 741.

[Benjamin Lubelski]