K 75 narozeninam Dr Gustava Sichera vrchniho rabina v Praze a v zemich ceskych, 21.VIII.1880-1955 [“For the 75th Birthday of Dr. Gustav Sicher, Chief Rabbi in Prague and the Czech lands, August 21, 1880-1955”].

(PRAGUE)

Council of Jewish Religious Communities

Prague

1955

A custom copy (likely issued for Sicher himself). Frontispiece engraved portrait of Sicher, signed by the artist in pencil. Title-page illuminated in black, red and gold. Eleven real photographs.

A festschrift in honor of Gustav Sicher on his 75th birthday. A rabbi and Zionist activist, Gustav Sicher (1880-1960) was born in Klatovy, in the Czech lands and completed a doctoral dissertation in philosophy under František Drtina at the Charles University in Prague. Sicher began his rabbinic career in 1906 in Náchod. In 1927, he was appointed rabbi of Praha Vinohrady, the largest Jewish congregation in Prague. After the Nazis occupied the country in 1939, Sicher moved to Palestine, where he founded a synagogue for Czech Jews in Jerusalem and also worked as a chaplain at Hadassah Hospital. In May 1946, Sicher was invited to become rabbi of the Jewish community in Prague. After a year of hesitation (during which he was accused of betraying Zionism - his situation was debated in newspapers), he accepted the offer and served as chief rabbi of Bohemia from 1947 until his death in 1960.