[1] Hackenburg attended public school in Philadelphia and received religious and Hebrew instruction from A. I. H. Bernal and Sim'ha Cohen Peixotto.
Two years later, he began working at the general merchandise store of S. & D. Teller in Wilmington, North Carolina.
He was also actively identified with the reorganization of the Jewish Foster Home and Orphan Asylum and was a director of the Hebrew Education Society.
[2] He was also a founder of the Jewish Publication Society, a trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund[3] and Dropsie College, and vice-president of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites.
[4] Never a candidate for public office, Hackenburg was appointed a member of the Board of Prison Inspectors of Philadelphia in 1896.
[6] Nearly two thousand people attended his funeral at the Jewish Hospital, including officers of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Pennsylvania and hundreds of prominent business and professional men.