ABSTRACT
Bloch, a native of Dukla in Galicia (now in Poland), was a prominent Austro-Hungarian rabbi. He acquired an Orthodox education after graduating from yeshiva. He was a student of the rabbi and posek Joseph Saul Nathanson (1808–1875), among others. He studied in Lemberg (present-day Lviv, in Ukraine), Magdeburg and Liegnitz (Legnica, in Poland), and finally received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Zurich. After his rabbinic ordination, he also served as a rabbi in Brüx (today's Czech town of Most). His rabbinical career ended in the district of Florisdorf in Vienna. He was a harsh critic of Austrian anti-Semitism and a fighter for the rights of Jews. He considered himself as an Austrian patriot, and as such, he was an opponent of Zionism because he emphasized the universal character of Judaism.
