Samuel Baeck

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Samuel Baeck (also Samuel Bäck; Hebrew: שמואל בק) was a German rabbi and the father of Leo Baeck. He was born April 3, 1834, in Boskowitz, Moravia, and died May 11, 1912, in Leszno (Lissa).

Family and early life
- His father, Nathan Baeck, was a rabbi in Kromau, Moravia; his grandfather, Abraham, was a rabbi in Holitsch, Hungary.
- He married Eva Placzek (1840–1926), the daughter of Abraham Placzek, Moravia’s chief rabbi.

Education and training
- Baeck attended public schools in Kromau and studied at Talmudic schools in Nikolsburg (Mikulov) and Pressburg.
- He studied at the University of Vienna and continued Talmudic studies under Rabbi Horwitz.
- He earned his rabbinic diploma from the chief rabbi Placzek of Boskovice.

Career and contributions
- In 1864 he became rabbi in Böhmisch Leipa, and later he was called to lead the important Jewish community of Leszno (Lissa) in the Province of Posen.
- He served on the municipal school committee and the Waisenrat (orphanage council), taught Jewish religion at the gymnasium, and was a delegate to the Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeindebund.
- He was a pioneer in introducing Jewish religious teaching in Prussia’s colleges.

Published works
- Inder und Hebräer (Indians and Hebrews)
- Erzählungen und Religionssätze der Heiligen Schrift (Tales and Doctrines of the Holy Scripture), Lissa, 1875, 2nd ed. 1886
- Systematische Religionssätze der Heiligen Schrift (Systematic Doctrines of the Holy Scripture), Lissa, 1875
- Geschichte des Judischen Volkes und Seiner Literatur vom Babylonischen Exile bis auf die Gegenwart (History of the Jewish People and Its Literature from the Babylonian Exile to the Present), Lissa, 1878, 2nd ed. 1894
- Die Halachistische und Responsen Literatur, die Literatur der Darshanim, Sittenlehrer, und Apologeten (The Halakhic and Responsa Literature, the Literature of the Darshanim, Sages, and Apologists), in Winter and Wünsche, Jüdische Literatur, vols. ii–iii

Notes
- This article incorporates material from The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906).