These sermons and writings continue those previously published which include the period of the First World War, and although not in a modern style, are very evocative of the period. Sir Hermann Gollancz was the Rabbi (Minister) of the Bayswater Synagogue, which had an old established, relatively wealthy congregation of very British Jews.
Rabbi Doctor Hermann Gollancz was born in Bremen, Germany. He was the eldest son of Rabbi Samuel Marcus Gollancz, of the Hambro Synagogue in London. He was educated at Jews’ College and University College London. He graduated in Classics and philosophy in 1873 and was awarded his MA in Hebrew, Syriac and German in 1889. In 1892 he succeeded Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler as minister at the Bayswater Synagogue, where he remained for 51 years.
In 1902 he was elected Goldsmid Professor of Hebrew at University College London. On his retirement from University College in 1923, he donated his considerable collection of Judaica to the college and was made Emeritus Professor. In the same year he was knighted, the first British rabbi to receive the honour.
Jewish Miscellanies 