David Einhorn, Trauer-Rede, 1865, Bertram Korn Papers (MS-99), American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Tribute to Lincoln by Rabbi Einhorn at Temple Keneseth Israel, Philadelphia, 19 April 1865

Many American rabbinic leaders paid tribute to President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination on 14 April 1865, by offering special services on 19 April, a National Day of Mourning, which happened to fall during the Festival of Shavuot.

David Einhorn (1809-1879), a German-born rabbi who came to America in 1855 held a more radical view of Reform Judaism than that of Isaac Mayer Wise. In 1858 he published a prayer book, Olat Tamid, which was recognized as one of the standards of Reform liturgy in America. After the Civil War broke out, Einhorn became a staunch anti-slavery supporter and consequently made many enemies in the pro-slavery state of Maryland. He left his Baltimore congregation, Har Sinai, in 1861 to become rabbi of Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he preached and wrote about his liberal views until 1866 when he became rabbi of Adath Yeshurun Congregation in New York.

In his 1865 eulogy, Einhorn expressed his deep regard for Lincoln: ?How Abraham Lincoln loved the suffering Fatherland...we should feel joy that such a great moral figure lived among us, in our time, and that the history of this Republic became enriched through another great name, that by the side of Washington now stands Lincoln.? (page three)

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