Uri Shraga Schreier

Name: 
Uri Shraga
Last name: 
Schreier
Date of death: 
1898
Profession and occupation: 
Organizations: 
Additional information: 

The Rabbi of Bohorodczany, a prominent religious Zionist.

In the founding conference of the proto-Zionist Association "Ahavat Zion" in Tarnow in December 1896, Rabbi Feivel Schreier was elected as a member of the Executive Committee and took an active part in the conference (Gelber, Toldot, 1:336-9; Ha-magid, no. 1, 1.1.1897, pp. 6-7; letters to him about the conference see Ha-magid, no. 24, 17 June 1897, p. 197). The conference accepted his proposal that all colonists in the settlements which would be established by the "Ahavat Zion" Association would be obliged to keep all of the religious laws (Gelber, Toldot, 1:337n).

Rabbi Schreier opened the first conference of "Ahavat Zion" on May 19, 1897 and expressed his full support for settlement in Palestine despite the opposition of many Orthodox rabbis (Gelber, Toldot, 1:347).

In response to these activities, the Fifth Conference of Galician Zionists in Lwow in December 1897 sent him a letter of gratitude (Gelber, Toldot, 1:327).

In 1897 he issued a halakhic decision which granted preference to etrogim from the Land of Israel and even tried to prohibit the usage of other etrogim (Ha-magid, no. 26, 6 July 1899, p. 217-18).

Rabbi Schreier also acted as a mediator in the conflict between the Zionists of Stanislawow and Kolomya and the Zionists of Lwow. In 1898 (Gelber, Toldot, 1:385) he opened the conference of the Galician Zionists on June 26, 1898, in Stanislawow and was elected to serve as a member of the organization's finance committee (Gelber, Toldot, 1:386-8).

Rabbi Schreier probably participated in reaching of the agreement between the Ahavat Zion association in Tarnow and the Czortkover rebbe: Avraham Zaltz, "Sovlanut meshunah," Ha-magid, no. 12, 24 March 1898, pp. 92-93.

Rabbi Schreier was eulogized by Theodor Herzl in the Third Zionist Congress in August 1899 (3rd Congress, 138; Gelber, Toldot, 1:364) - see the text.

Rabbi Schreier was eulogized  in Ahavat Zion association in Tarnow: Ha-magid, no. 46, 6 December 1899, p. 419. 

His widow donated a Torah scroll to the colony Machanaim in the Land of Israel (Ha-magid, no. 39, 11 October 1899, add. page "News of the Ahavat Zion Society in Tarnow;" no. 41, 27 October 1899, add. page "News of the Ahavat Zion Society in Tarnow;" no. 42, 4 November 1899, p. 380).

Rabbi Schreier published the book Daat Kdoshim of the famous Talmudic scholar and Hasidic leader Rabbi Avraham David of Buczacz with his commentary. In 1891 the book was re-published in Warsaw without receiving Rabbi Schreier's permission, and several important rabbis in Galicia prohibited buying the Warsaw edition (Ha-magid, no. 27, 9 July 1891, addendum).