Weber, Koloman
WEBER, KOLOMAN
WEBER, KOLOMAN (d. 1931), Czechoslovakian Orthodox rabbi. Weber attended yeshivot in Pressburg (*Bratislava), where he received semikhah. He served first as rabbi of Rete but made his name as rabbi of *Piestany, Slovakia, where he remained for 29 years, waging a bitter battle against *Neologists and *Zionists. After World War i, Weber was instrumental in organizing the autonomous Orthodox Zentralkanzlei of Jewish communities in Slovakia, which he headed autocratically for 12 years. In March 1926, Emil *Margulies accused Weber in the Selbstwehr of expropriating for his own use large sums from the American Jews' Central Relief Committee, and Weber took legal action against him. In the course of the trial it came out that Weber and Rabbi Simon Hirschler had received 100,000 crowns in order to split the Jewish vote in Subcarpathian Ruthenia by creating a "Jewish Economic Party," thus keeping the Zidovska strana (the "Jewish Party") out of parliament and benefitting the ruling Agrarian party. Although he lost his suit, neither his power nor combativeness suffered. He died a few years later in an accident.
[Henry Wasserman]