PREIL, ELAZAR MEIR

PREIL, ELAZAR MEIR (1881–1933), rabbi. Born in Birz, Lithuania, he studied with his bother Rabbi Joshua Joseph before going to Slabodka. After ordination he joined the faculty of the yeshivah in Sadove and then moved with Rabbi Bloch to Telshe. In 1907 he became the rabbi of Beit Midrash Hagadol in Manchester, England, and then immigrated to the United States in 1911 where he became a rabbi in Trenton. A fellow graduate of Telshe, Rabbi Bernard Revel invited Preil to teach at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary where he taught from 1912 onward, first while serving in Trenton and then as rabbi in Elizabeth, New Jersey. During World War I he worked with the Central Relief Committee and became secretary of Agudath ha-Rabbonim and chairman of its Vaad Kashrut. He was widely published in Torah journals and published a book on family purity law in Yiddish. He was succeeded by his son-in-law Rabbi Pinchas Teitz, who strengthened the Elizabeth Jewish community. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M.D. Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1996).