CHOTZNER, JOSEPH:

By: Joseph Jacobs, Edgar Mels

English rabbi and author; born at Cracow, Austria, May 11, 1844; educated at the Breslau rabbinical seminary and the University of Breslau. After his ordination Chotzner became the first rabbi of the congregation at Belfast, Ireland, officiating from 1870 to 1880; and he again held the rabbinate there from 1892 to 1897. In the mean time (1880-92) he had become house master and teacher of Hebrew at Harrow School, where several Jewish boys had recently entered. The experiment was made of placing all of them in a separate house under the supervision of Dr. Chotzner. After some twelve years' experience it was found more expedient to spread the Jewish boys among their comrades, and Dr. Chotzner left Harrow for Belfast. Since 1897 he has been lecturer at Montefiore College, Ramsgate.

Chotzner is the author of: (1) "Lel Shimmurim" (The Night of Observances), a collection of satirical poems on certain Hebrew superstitions, Breslau, 1864; (2) "The Songs of Mirza Schaffy," translated into Hebrew, ib. 1868; (3) "Modern Judaism" (1876); (4) "Humor and Irony of the Hebrew Bible," 1883; (5) "Zikronot" (Records), 1885.

His son, Alfred James Chotzner, was gold medalist at Cambridge University, and subsequently entered the Indian civil service.

J.E. Ms.