Rabbi Chaim Zirkel

Chaim Zev Hakohen Zirkel was born in Lyuban, Belarus on 17 February 1886. He was a direct descendant of the Rambam. As a boy, he studied under his grandfather Rabbi Samson Zirkel, Rabbi of Visoko-Litovsk. He was also a student of the Mir Yeshiva. He later entered the Yeshiva of Rabbi Dr. Nehemiah Anton Nobel, Rabbi of Frankfort-on-Main. He worked as a Hebrew teacher in Frankfurt am Main before coming to Glasgow during the 1920s with his family. Zirkel enrolled at the University of Glasgow in 1926 to study an Arts course. He attended classes in German, Logic, Moral Philosophy, and Hebrew, taking honours classes in the latter three subjects. He was awarded class prizes for Higher Hebrew during summer 1928 under Professor William Barron Stevenson, and for Junior Honours Hebrew in session 1927-28. Zirkel joined Glasgow Hebrew College, the Talmud Torah as a teacher in 1926 and was appointed as the Rabbi and principal of the College in 1930. He gained British citizenship along with his son, Leo, on 29 June 1932. He retired from the post of Principal of the Glasgow Hebrew College in July 1948 and emigrated with his wife Sarah (née Levensohn) in August 1948 to Los Angles. He served as Associate Rabbi in the Temple Beth Zion (Conservative Synagogue) from 1956-1958. His wife died on September 3 1961 and he remarried Malie Paper/Helsinger on Apr 8 1962. He died on 24 February 1964 in Los Angeles.