- Source: Henry Hochheimer
Henry Hochheimer (October 3, 1818 – January 25, 1912) was a German-American rabbi who ministered in Baltimore, Maryland for over 40 years.
Life
Hochheimer was born on October 3, 1818, in Ansbach, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, the son of Rabbi Isaac Hochheimer.
When Hochheimer was 10, he moved with his family to Ichenhausen, where his father was made the town's rabbi. He returned to Ansbach four years later to pursue secular studies at the Lateinschule and Hebrew studies with his grandfather Moses Hochheimer. He began studying at the gymnasium in Augsburg in 1835, and in 1839 he entered the University of Munich. He graduated from the latter in 1844. He also studied Hebrew subjects under Rabbi Guggenheimer of Kriegshaber and Rabbi Hirsch Aub of Munich, and was ordained a rabbi by the latter in 1845. He worked as his father's assistant in Ichenhausen from 1844 to 1849. He wrote political addresses and articles in Die Zeitung für die Elegante Welt and Der Grenzbote during the German revolutions of 1848–1849, which led to warrants to be issued against him and forced him to flee the country. He came to America in 1849.
Hochheimer was elected rabbi of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Baltimore, Maryland, in October 1849, shortly after he landed in New York City. His inaugural sermon was translated and published by Isaac Leeser in The Occident and American Jewish Advocate. He served as rabbi in the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation for the next ten years. In 1859, he became rabbi of Fell's Point Hebrew Friendship Congregation. He served as rabbi there until his retirement in 1892.
In 1871, Hochheimer collaborated with Benjamin Szold and Marcus Jastrow in revising the prayer book Adobat Yisrael. He published his first article in Julius Fürst's Der Orient in 1841, and ever since he regularly contributed to the Jewish press, especially Die Deborah and Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums. Several of his sermons were included in Meyer Kayserling's Bibliothek Jüdischer Kanzelredner, and a number of his addresses were published in pamphlets. His wife's name was Rosalia. They had two surviving children, including Baltimore lawyer Lewis Hochheimer.
Hochheimer died in the Baltimore Hebrew Hospital and Asylum on January 25, 1912. He was buried in the Baltimore Hebrew Friendship Cemetery.