HAUSNER, BERNARD

HAUSNER, BERNARD (1874–1938), rabbi, Polish Zionist leader, and representative of Poland in Palestine. Born in Czortkow, Galicia, he studied at the University of Vienna and at the rabbinical seminary there, graduating in 1901. He taught religion at the secondary schools of Lemberg (1899–1914) and was rabbi and spiritual leader of the Lemberg Jewish community for the two years that the city was occupied by the Russians (1914–16). He also served as military chaplain in the Austrian army on various fronts (1916–18). After the war he became a leader of the Zionist movement, particularly of Mizrachi, in Poland. He served as a member of the Sejm (Polish parliament) from 1922 to 1927, when he settled in Palestine. In 1926 Hausner published a treatise in Polish on the financial rehabilitation of Poland, which earned him the reputation of an economic expert. In Palestine, he served first as economic adviser to the Polish government and later (1932–34) as Polish consul in Tel Aviv. Both in Poland and Palestine, Hausner took an active part in public affairs and published essays on Jewish subjects (in Polish), as well as a Polish translation of the maḥzor. His son was gideon hausner (1915–1990), chief prosecutor in the eichmann trial. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Tidhar, 9 (1958), 3316–17; EẓD, 2 (1960), 19–23. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Majchrowski et al. (eds.), Kto byl kim wdrugiej Rzeczypospolitej (1994), 293. (Getzel Kressel)