Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Random rabbinic portraiture



This is a portrait of Rabbi Hirschel Loebel, who was known in England as Hart Lyon when he was Chief Rabbi there (anachronistically speaking). He was later rabbi in Berlin. The portrait is in this 1834 edition of his uncle R. Yaakov Emden's Pirqe Avos commentary Lechem Shamayim, with Hart Lyon's own notes.

More flattering then the more commonly seen portrait:



It's nice to chance upon these things. Note the emblem meant to symbolize his name.