Shimon Sofer (II)
| Rabbi Shimon Sofer | |
|---|---|
| Rabbi of Erlau | |
 |
|
| Began | 1881 |
| Ended | 1944 |
| Successor | Rabbi Moshe Sofer II |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Shimon Sofer |
| Born | 1850 Pressburg, Hungary |
| Died | 12 June 1944 (21 Sivan 5704) Auschwitz concentration camp |
| Nationality |
 Hungarian |
| Denomination | Orthodox Judaism |
| Parents | Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer and Chava Leah Weiss |
| Spouse |
|
| Children | 15 |
| Occupation | Rabbi, rosh yeshiva |
Shimon Sofer (II) (1850 – 2 June 1944) was the Rav of the Hungarian city of Eger (Erlau) and the progenitor of the Erlauer Hasidic dynasty. His grandson, Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, was the Erlauer Rebbe in Israel.
Sofer was one of 10 children born to Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer (1815 – 1872), known as the Ksav Sofer. The Ksav Sofer was the son of Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762 – 1839), known as the Chasam Sofer, the rabbi of Pressburg (present-day Bratislava) and the leading rabbinical figure of Orthodox Judaism in the Austrian Empire, as well as one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of his day.
Shimon Sofer studied and lived the early part of his life in Kleinwardein (today Kisvárda, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary), a town boasting a large Jewish community. He was a diligent student, completing the Talmudic tractate of Beitzah six times before his bar mitzvah.
In 1870 he married Esther Fried, daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Fried of Kleinwardein. The couple had a daughter. Esther died after two years of marriage. In 1874 Sofer married his cousin, Glikle Birnbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Birnbaum of the town of Dubno in western Ukraine. Rabbi Birnbaum was the son-in-law of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Sofer's great-grandfather. The couple had a son, Akiva, but divorced soon after his birth.
During this period, Sofer lived both in Uman and Kiev, where he became known as a brilliant Torah scholar. Despite his young age, he was offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Kiev, an offer he turned down.
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Wikipedia