Jakob Hoffmann (later Jacob Hoffman) was born in 1881 in Pápa, Hungary. He studied at the Pressburg Yeshiva (today Bratislava) and received his rabbinical ordination in 1905/1906. From 1906 to 1908 he served as rabbi of the Montefiore congregation in Vienna, then became rabbi in Kostel, Moravia (today Podivín, Czech Republic) until 1912, when he accepted the position as chief rabbi in the Bukovina town of Radautz. During WWI he served as chief field rabbi in the southern region. Following the war he continued to serve in Radautz (now Rădăuţi ) which had now become part of Romania. In 1923 he was offered the position of Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Frankfurt am Main. Here he held the rabbinical office from 1923 to 1937 and was elected to serve on the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden. In 1937 he was arrested by the Gestapo. As a Hungarian national, his release was negotiated and he was expelled from Germany, whereupon he left for the United States hoping to raise money for the Jews in Germany. In New York he was elected rabbi of Ohab Zedek where he served until 1953. In 1954 he moved to Israel together with his wife, Recha Hoffmann nee Schlesinger. In addition to his rabbinical studies in Bratislava, he completed a PhD at the University of Vienna in 1919. He was also awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Yeshiva University in 1951. Hoffmann was a founding member of the Mizrachi organization in the Bukovina and active in the movement throughout his life. He died in 1956 in Tel Aviv.
From the guide to the Jakob Hoffmann Collection, 1904-1985, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)
