[Avodah] Rabbi Isak Unna of Mannheim (was Re: Rav Unno)

[Shoshana L. Boublil]

> Subject: [Avodah] Rav Unno
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> From: "Meir Shinnar" <>
> Issur of kol isha only applies to the problem of saying davar
> shebikdusha in its presence (tshuva of Rav Unno, the Rav of
> Mannheim before the war, justifiying having choruses of girls
> sing - arguing that this was ikkar hadin

> Am I the only person here who has never heard of him before?

> And seriously, where CAN one find out more about him?

Here: Try googling for Rabbi Isak Unna of Mannheim.

Here is just one of the many resources where he is, respectfully, 
mentioned:

http://zachor.michlalah.edu/english/inquiry/arch.asp?num=2&mesT=2&month=3&sortT=1

Testimony No. 1

Place: Mannheim, a major port city on the Rhine in the state of 
Baden-W?rttemberg in western Germany
Mannheim had a beit midrash that had been headed by renowned rabbis, 
including Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger and Rabbi Isak Unna (who later moved to 
Eretz Israel). This beit midrash served as a center for Orthodox Jewry until 
the Holocaust. On April 1, 1933 (Boycott Day in Germany), shortly after the 
Nazis rose to power, the interior of the Mannheim synagogue was destroyed, 
and on Kristallnacht the synagogue was burned completely.

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Apparently Rabbi Unna has published on various topics.

I found a short entry on him, perhaps someone could translate it from 
German:

Unna, Dr. Isak (geb. 1872 Würzburg, gest. 1948 Jerusalem, mütterlicherseits 
ein Enkel des "Würzburger Raw" Seligmann Bär Bamberger): studierte in 
Würzburg und Berlin, zunächst Rabbinatsassistent in Frankfurt am Main, seit 
1898 Klaus-Rb in Mannheim, seit 1920 3. StadtRb in Mannheim (1924 
KonferenzRb des Oberrats, Exponent des gesetzestreuen Judentums, seit 1932 
Vorsitzender der "Gesetzestreuen Rabbinervereinigung Deutschlands", schrieb 
ein Werk zur Geschichte der Klaus-Synagoge Mannheim), Sept. 1935 nach Erez 
Jisrael eingewandert, Autor einer posthum 1964 in Jerusalem herausgegebenen 
Sammlung rabbinischer Gutachten (Responsen).


Shoshana L. Boublil