Auerbach (Jewish family)

The Jewish family Auerbach, Авербах (אוּרבּך) of the 16th to 19th century was a family of scholars, the progenitor of which was Moses Auerbach, born around 1462, court Jew to the bishop of Regensburg as of around 1497. One of his daughters, who went to Kraków after her marriage, is the reputed ancestress of the celebrated Rabbi Moses Isserles (רמ״א). The Auerbach family gained Court Jew status and later nobility titles under the Habsburg Monarchy.

Another branch of the Auerbach family settled at Vienna. A near-relative, Meshullam Solomon Fischhof-Auerbach, achieved eminence in that city and married Miriam Lucerna, the daughter of a well-known rabbi and physician, Leo Lucerna (Judah Löb Ma‘or-qat‘on L.). {Miriam is known to have died on July 29, 1654 (Frankl, Inschriften, No. 202)}. In his old age, it was Meshullam's misfortune to be driven from Vienna and exiled (1670) with his coreligionists. Before his death (1677), he had the satisfaction of seeing his sons occupy honorable positions. Nearly twenty years before, his son, Menahem Mendel Auerbach, had been called as rabbi to Reussnitz, Moravia, after having officiated as assessor to the rabbinate at Kraków. The pupil of Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, Joel Sarkes, and Joshua ben Joseph at the Talmud school in Kraków, Menahem Mendel achieved an international reputation for Talmudic authority.

The best known among Mendel's brothers is Simon Auerbach, who at the age of twenty-three wrote a penitential poem on the occasion of an epidemic that broke out among children in Vienna, in 1634. This poem passed through several editions, under the title Mish'on (sic) la-Yeladim (Support to Children), Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1711. The author died March 11, 1638, at Eibenschütz (). The poem was printed by the grandson of the author, Meshullam Solomon Fischhof, who added a commentary, Rab Shalom (Much Peace). He also published several prayers and hymns of Israel Nagara, with additions of his own (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1712).

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