MAYER, SAMUEL:

By: Isidore Singer, Meyer Kayserling

German rabbi and lawyer; born at Hechingen Jan. 3, 1807; died there Aug. 1, 1875. He studied at the Talmud Torah in his native town, entered the bet ha-midrash and the lyceum at Mannheim in 1823, and went to the University of Würzburg in 1826, where he attended at the same time the Talmudic lectures of Chief Rabbi Abraham Bing. Mayer then went to Tübingen, where he took his degree. In 1830 he was called to the rabbinate of Hechingen, which he occupied until his death. He took up also the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1849. He was the only rabbi in Germany combining the offices of rabbi and lawyer. Mayer was a prolific writer; his chief work, the fruit of twelve years of labor, is entitled "Die Rechte der Israeliten, Athener und Römer, mit Rücksicht auf die Neuen Gesetzgebungen" (vol. i., "Das Oeffentliche Recht"; vol. ii., "Das Privatrecht," Leipsic, 1862-66; vol. iii., "Das Strafrecht," Treves, 1876). He edited the "Israelitisches Samstagsblatt" (1837) and the "Israelitischer Musenalmanach" (Dinkelsbühl, 1840). He wrote also "Gesch. der Israeliten in Hohenzollern-Hechingen" (published in "Orient, Lit." 1844).

S. M. K.