Sheet music by Jacob Sonderling

Jacob Sonderling was a German and American rabbi, field rabbi and author. He came from a Hasidic family and made the rare attempt to harmonize Zionism and Reform Judaism. Another focus of his work was the combination of art, music and religion.

At the end of his studies, Sonderling completed his doctorate with a thesis on Kant’s lectures on logic. He was a preacher at the temple in Hamburg, was chief clergyman of the 8th army during the First World War and emigrated to the USA in 1923. He appeared there as a Zionist speaker and worked as a liberal rabbi in New York and Chicago. In Los Angeles he founded the so-called Fairfax Temple and, as a fatherly member of the German-speaking migrant scene, helped composers to commission pieces of music, some of which he wrote the lyrics for.