SOFER

SOFER (Schreiber ), rabbinical family, descendants of Moses *Sofer. abraham samuel benjamin wolf (1815–1871), oldest son of Moses Sofer, succeeded his father on his death in 1839 as rabbi and rosh yeshivah of Pressburg. During the 32 years he occupied this post, he continued his father's policies in all matters. He was one of the active organizers of Hungarian Orthodoxy for the Jewish Congress which took place in 1869, and subsequently carried on his activity in this sphere (see *Hungary). Though not at first an extremist, he later joined their ranks and finally gave the religious approval of the Sofer dynasty to the schism in Hungarian Jewry. He published responsa and expositions of the Torah under the title Ketav Sofer (1873–1938).

His brother simeon sofer (1820–1883) was appointed rabbi of Mattersdorf in 1848 and in 1861 of Cracow, where he served until his death. He founded *Maḥzike Hadas, the Orthodox organization in Galicia, to battle the maskilim. With this end in view he strengthened relations with the ḥasidic rabbis of Belz and Zanz. From 1878 he was a member of parliament in Vienna. His books on halakhah and homiletics were published under the title Mikhtav Sofer (2 vols., 1952–55).

simhah bunem sofer (1842–1906), son and successor of Abraham Wolf, continued to maintain the large yeshivah, to organize Orthodoxy, and to accentuate the differences between it and other sectors of Hungarian Jewry. For this purpose, he strengthened relations with ḥasidic rabbis in Hungary. He expressed his opposition to the *Mizrachi conference which took

place in Pressburg in 1904. His publications are: Shevet Sofer, responsa (1909) and novellae on talmudic tractates (1938–56); and Sha'arei Simḥah, on the Pentateuch (1923).

simeon (1850–1944), son of Abraham Wolf, founded in 1881 the well-known yeshivah in Erlau (Hung., Eger), where he was rabbi, and taught there until the day he was taken to Auschwitz extermination camp where he perished. He had been in favor of agricultural settlement in Ereẓ Israel. He published the responsa, Hitorerut Teshuvah (4 vols., 1912–34).

solomon sofer (1853–1930), son of Abraham Wolf, was a distinguished preacher and writer. He is the author of Ḥut ha-Meshullash (1887), biographies of famous members of the family; and edited the Iggerot Soferim (1928), containing letters of his family, the Sofers and the Egers. He served as rabbi of Beregszasz until his death.

akiva sofer (1878–1959), son of Simḥah Sofer, succeeded his father as rabbi and rosh yeshivah of Pressburg. In 1940 he settled in Israel where he reestablished the yeshivah of Pressburg (Jerusalem), acting as its head until his death. His publications are Da'at Sofer (1963) on Torah, and responsa (2 vols., 1965).

abraham sofer (schreiber; 1897– ), son of Simeon Sofer, served as rabbi in many communities in Greece and in Italy. He immigrated to Ereẓ Israel in 1939, settling in Jerusalem. From 1948 to 1966 he was a teacher at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. As a fruitful rabbinic author, his main activity was preparing the works of Menahem *Meiri, as well as of other rishonim for publication.

bibliography:

Solomon Sorer, Ha-Ḥut ha-Meshullash (1887); idem, Iggerot Soferim (1928); Simeon Sofer, Mikhtav Sofer, ed. by J.N. Stern (1952), 3–86; A.S.B. Sofer, Ketov Zot Zikkaron (1957); Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 481.

[Moshe Shraga Samet]