KOREFF, SOLOMON:
German Talmudist; born about 1700; died in Prague May 24, 1774. For more than forty years he presided over a large yeshibah at Prague. On the record of the appointment of Ezekiel Landau as chief rabbi of Prague (1754; see Kaufmann in "Ha-Eshkol," i. 177-184, Cracow, 1898) is found the signature of Solomon Koreff, although he, like many others, was said to be an opponent of the newly elected rabbi on account of the quarrel about Jonathan Eybeschütz.
When the empress Maria Theresa issued the decree banishing the Jews from Prague (Dec. 18, 1744), a deputation of influential Jews at once proceeded to the government authorities to protest. Koreff was the speaker of this deputation, and when, in his excitement, he became too loud, and was rebuked in consequence, he made the memorable answer, "Ten thousand souls cry from within me." It is said that he alone was allowed to remain. After the Jews had left Prague (March 31, 1745) on account of the impossibility of enduring the new conditions imposed upon them, negotiations with the government were maintained until they terminated (Aug., 1748) in the repeal of the act of banishment. Solomon Koreff's name is repeatedly found among the number of the "Schtadlanim" who signed the memorials submitted to the government between 1745 and 1748. After the Jews had been readmitted, Koreff was appointed by the government one of the four elders of the community.
- S. Hock, Die Familien Prags, ed. D. Kaufmann, pp. 327-328, Presburg, 1892;
- G. Wolf, Die Vertreibung der Juden aus Böhmen, in Jahrb. für die Gesch. der Juden, iv. 169 et passim, Leipsic, 1869;
- Abr. Trebitsch, Ḳorot ha-'Ittim, p. 19b, Brünn, 1801.
