KISCH, ALEXANDER

KISCH, ALEXANDER (1848–1917), Austrian rabbi and scholar. Born in Prague, Kisch studied at the Breslau Jewish theological seminary, and at various universities. In Paris he became a tutor in baron horace guenzburg 's house. He served as rabbi in Bruex (Most), Bohemia (1874–77); in Zurich, Switzerland (1877–81); in Jungbunzlau (Mlada Beleslav), Bohemia (1881–86); and at the Meisels Synagogue in Prague (1886–1917). While serving in Zurich, Kisch founded and published (1878–80) the first Swiss-Jewish weekly, Neue Israelitische Zeitung. In 1899, Franz Joseph I awarded Kisch a gold medal for 25 years' service as a military chaplain; at the audience, Kisch persuaded the monarch to strongly condemn antisemitism, which was then assuming alarming proportions after the hilsner trial for ritual murder. Kisch was the first and only rabbi in Austria to be appointed a government professor of religion (1900) and an inspector of religious education (1909). Among Kisch's published works are: Papst Gregor   des Neunten Anklageartikel gegen den Talmud (1847), Hillel der Alte (1889), Das Testament Mardochai Meysels mitgetheilt und … beleuchtet: Festschrift zum 300-jaehrigen Jubilaeum der Meyselssynagogue (1893), Das mosaisch-talmudische Eherecht von R. Ezechiel Landau (1900), and Versuch einer neuen Erklaerung der in der Alkuinhandschrift Nr. 795 der Hofbibliothek Wien enthaltenen gotischen Fragmente (1902). bruno kisch and guido kisch were his sons. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Kisch, Alexander Kisch 1848–1917 (Ger., 1934); G. Kisch (ed.), Breslau Seminary (1963), 423 (incl. bibl.) (Oskar K. Rabinowicz)