1834 – 1907 – Strenovice near Plzen
Rabbi Isak HaCohen Frankl
Isak was the youngest child of Abraham and Josefa Baum. The family lived in Ĺ irokĂ© TĹ™ebÄŤice a small village with quite an established Jewish population. His father, Abraham, was the Shammas at the local synagogue. This was a paid role and was key to the smooth running of the community. It involved in assisting the synagogue’s rabbi in organising and planning all services and festivals. This meant that Isak spent a lot of time in the synagogue and gave him the chance to study and learn. He must have had an apptitude and interest in learning, because he became a Rabbi. We guess that he was very proid of his status as a ‘Cohain’ descendant of the Temple High Priest because he called himself Isak HaCohen Frankl – literally ‘Isak the high priest Frankl!’ He married Eva Jeiteles, the younger sister of Moses Jeiteles who had married, Isak’s older sister Maria. It is not clear how Isak earned a living as he didn’t have an official position as a Rabbi until he was well over 50 years old. We have to guess that he was supported by other members of his family. We know that he spent time in Vienna, presumably mainly for study purposes. There is a very lovely gold pointer (Yad) in the Jewish Museum in Vienna, with a notation that says “donated by Rabbi Isak HaCohen Frankl”. He also spent time in Louny where his son Alois was born in 1870. This coincides with the date of the opening of the new synagogue in the town. It’s not clear if he was there as a teacher or perhaps as the cantor. Perhaps he was a follower of the Reform Movement that was growing in Germany. We believe that his son Maximilian wanted to train as a Reform Rabbi and that’s why he travelled to the USA, but then discovered it was a costly business studying at Hebrew Union College and he never made it, although his grandson Richard Dryer did.
Isak and Eva moved to Strenovice at the end of the 19th Century for his first official position as Rabbi. David Frankl, his great grandson, on a visit in July 2023 discovered his grave there along with the synagogue and schoolhouse. The stories of his sons Maximilian and Alois and some of their descendants are also described on this website.
