Rabbi Aron Kornfeld

Familiantenbuch 58 HBF VII/I Chrudimský Košumberk (P) -/ II. část/; folio: 1 - image 8 -- https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000141880472315

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/czech-republic/golcuv-jen...

Aron Kornfeld (2nd August 1795-27th October 1881, Golčův Jeníkov) -theologian and philosopher

    He has been recognized as one of the last classical rabbi authors in Bohemia. He organized ješiva – a talmudic school, higher level of Jewish school. Jewish rabbis, judges and teachers graduated there. But also the future businessman trained their logical thinking at this school. Some of the famous people who studied there were: Ignác Kuranda, later he became a deputy of Imperial Diet, Szanto, publisher of a popular Jewish weekly magazine Die Neuzeit and Isaak Mayer Weis-Wise, a founder of American reform Judaism. When Kornfeld died, the school(the last one of its kind in Bohemia) was closed down. He wrote a publication Poznámky ke kabale(1865)

And from the Jewish Encyclopedia: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9473-kornfeld-aaron

Austrian Talmudist; born Aug. 2, 1795, at Goltsch-Jenikau, Bohemia; died there Oct. 26, 1881. His only teacher was his father, Rabbi Mordecai Bär Kornfeld, head of a yeshibah, who taught him both the Talmud and the profane sciences. Kornfeld was only eighteen years old when he took over the direction of the yeshibah at his father's death. The fame of the school was so great that sometimes as many as eighty pupils were in attendance. When Sir Moses Montefiore was passing through Bohemia on his return from Damascus, he undertook the difficult journey to Goltsch-Jenikau purposely to become acquainted with the celebrated Talmudist.

In 1864, when Kornfeld suffered from an affection of the eyes and was not allowed to read until an operation had been performed, he composed from memory a compendium of 300 commandments which he skilfully clothed in the gemaṭriot of their Biblical verses. It appeared under the title "Ẓiyyunim le-Dibre ha-Ḳabbalah," Prague, 1865. Besides a short article, printed in "Shomer Ẓiyyon ha-Ne'eman," this is Kornfeld's only publication.

Bibliography: M. H. Friedländer, Das Leben und Wirken der Hervorragendsten Rabbinischen Autoritäten Prags, pp. 51-59, Vienna, 1902.

And from the Encyclopedia Judaica: KORNFELD, AARON BEN MORDECHAI BAER (1795-1881), last rosh yeshivah of Bohemia. Kornfeld's father, Mordecai Baer, turned an old distillery in *Golcuv Jenikov into a modern factory, and his uncle Salman supplied potash to glass factories and founded a tannery. The wealth they thus gained was used for the upkeep of a yeshivah, headed first by Mordecai Baer, and, on his death, by Aaron, who was then only 18 years old. Becoming renowned throughout the Jewish world as Aaron Jennikau, Kornfeld was strictly Orthodox in his teaching, yet he conceded the necessi9ty for secular studies. Up to 80 students attended his yeshivah, among them Ignaz *Kuranda and Simon *Szanto. On his return from his intervention in the *Damascus Affair, Moses *Montefiore stopped at Golcuv Jenikov to make Kornfeld's acquaintance. Kornfeld published in 1847 a dialogue between an Orthodox father and a Liberal son in the Shomer Ziyyon ha-Ne'eman, and in 1865 Ziyyunim le Divrei ha-Kabbalah, a collection of judgements alluded to through *gematria. These he compiled from memory while preparing to undergo an eye operation. With Aaron's death, his yeshivah, the last in Bohemia, was closed. Kornfeld's brother-in-law, MEIR ALTAR HA-LEVI (1812-after 1865), was an early protagonist of *Haskalah in Bohemia and contributed to *Bikkurei ha-Ittim. Among his works was a translation of the Psalms into Greek. In 1850 Kornfeld and Altar were members of a committee formulating a curriculum for a rabbinical seminary to be established in Prague. Members of the same family include SIGMUND KORNFELD, the Vienna psychiatrist and philosopher, a friend of Theodor *Herzl, Joseph *Popper-Lynkeus, and Zsigmond *Kornfeld, the Budapest banker. The German espressionist poet Paul *Kornfeld was Aaron's great-grandson.

[The asteriks in the entry mean that you could look up those things/people in the Encyclopedia Judaica. Sorry I don't have bibliographic entry.]