Nahum Uri Gelles

Name: 
Nahum Uri
Last name: 
Gelles
Born in: 
Narayuv
Date of birth: 
1852
Date of death: 
November 18, 1934
Father's name: 
Rabbi David Yitzhak Gellis
Community: 
Additional information: 

Rabbi of Solotvin from 1884 until his death (Ohalei Shem, 261-2; Pinkas Kehilot, 350). According to statement of the Community Board in Solotvin, Rabbi Gelles died on October 18, 1934. (CAHJP, HM2/8663.2). He replaced his father inlaw Rabbi Tzvi Arie Wienstein who held the Rabbi position in Solotvin from 1852-1884.

In 1905-1907 he was accused of neglecting his post by frequent departures from Solotvin, and a substitute rabbi was appointed in Solotvin. Gelles lodged an appeal against this  appointment (CAHJP, Hm2/9509.5)

He was active in the Orthodox politics and took part in the World Congress of Orthodox Rabbis convened in Kraków in 1903 (Ha-magid, no. 1, 31 August 1903, p. 354).

 

He was also active in the Religious Zionist Mizrahi movement and signed the 1918 appeal of eleven prominent Galician rabbis and Hasidic rebbes to establish the religious settlements in the Land of Israel (Gelber, Toldot, 2:803).

He was probably in bad relations with Meir Haller, the Head of the Solotvin Community, and after his death the Gelles family claimed that Haller owed the rabbi some money. (CAHJP, Hm2/8658.4)  

With the outbreak of WWI he moved from Solotvin to Vienna with many of his followers. There he was active in Orthodox circles and close to Israel Friedman, the spiritual leader of the Hasidic sect of Czortkowe. (Dr.Edward Gelles, "An Ancient Lineage: European Roots of a Jewish Family", Vallentine Mitchell, London, 2006)

Died in Vienna.