Hermann Kohlmeyer (1814 – 1883) was an American

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

in charge of Congregation Shangarai Chasset in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana. On January 17, 1847, the synagogue board unanimously elected Kohlmeyer to serve as its leader. In the edition of

The Occident and American Jewish Advocate ''The Occident and American Jewish Advocate'' or simply ''The Occident'' (1843-1869), was the first general Jewish periodical published in the United States. The only earlier periodical, Solomon Henry Jackson's ''The Jew'', was published as an a ...

that noted the appointment,

Isaac Leeser Isaac Leeser (December 12, 1806 – February 1, 1868) was an American Orthodox Jewish religious leader, teacher, scholar and publisher. He helped found the Jewish press of America, produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English, ...

praised Kohlmeyer as a worthy individual for the position, and expressed hope that Kohlmeyer would be successful. Noted as a brilliant scholar and linguist, Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise recommended Kohlmeyer to serve on the rabbinical committee that was to examine Wise's ''

Minhag America ''Minhag America'' is a siddur created in 1857 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise that was intended to address conflict between sides supporting and opposing traditionalism in early Reform Judaism in the United States. The prayer book was accepted by the m ...

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

prayer book. But Kohlmeyer gave up his ministry for a career in education, becoming professor of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

Literature at the University of Louisiana (now

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

). Although his service to the Jewish community seems to have been relatively short in length, it appears that his descendants remained in New Orleans, and have been prominent members of the New Orleans community since then.

References

* Kahn, Catherine C. and Lachoff, Irwin. ''The Jewish Community of New Orleans''. (Arcadia Publishing 2005) . * Adams, Herbert Baxter ''Contributions to American Educational History'' (Government Printing Office 1898) *

American Orthodox rabbis Clergy from New Orleans 1814 births 1883 deaths Place of birth missing Place of death missing 19th-century American rabbis {{US-rabbi-stub