Isaac Rülf

[4] This mirrored a continent-wide division based largely on the Easterners' fixation on traditional religious education and their perceived ignorance of worldly affairs.

[6] Beginning in the late 1860s with his relief works, Rülf gained an international reputation for his assistance to Russian Jews.

He would use the press and public opinion as leverage for this activity, making the most important change in the tactics of intercession during the 19th century.

[7] To supplement his small pay as rabbi, Rülf became an editor of the Memeler Dampfboot, the city's largest liberal newspaper.

[citation needed] In 1885, Rülf used his political contacts in Germany to prevent a final mass expulsion of Jews from Memel.

[11] Rülf travelled east to study the cruel conditions of Jewish life in Russia and Lithuania.

In Memel these were translated into German and sent to England, where they later appeared in two long articles in the London Times on January 11 and 13, 1882.

He organized a massive relief campaign in Germany for Russian Jews, and tens of thousands came to know him as 'Rabbi Hülf' or 'Dr.

[9] To this end, he collected an amazing 630,000 Mark in Germany,[15] transferring it to 230 Lithuanian settlements over a year and a half.

[16] Within months, Russian Jew Leon Pinsker published Auto-Emancipation, calling for a Jewish state in response to anti-Semitism.

[11][22] In Memel, Rülf had been the mentor of David Wolffsohn, who went on to succeed Herzl as the second President of the World Zionist Organization.

[12] Late in life, Rülf attempted to warn European Jews of the dangers they faced from German anti-Semitism.

[26] Benno and his wife traveled to the Netherlands but, according to a statement of his daughter Elizabeth, he was deported and killed in Auschwitz.