Mayer Sulzberger was an American judge and Jewish communal leader. Besides, he had one of the best private libraries in America; it contained a very large number of Hebraica and Judaica, together with many other early Hebrew printed books and many manuscripts.
Background
Mayer was born on June 22, 1843 in Heidelsheim, Baden, Germany. He was the son of Abraham and Sophia (Einstein) Sulzberger. He came of a family which had included a number of rabbinical scholars. His father, a minister and teacher in Heidelsheim, came to America as a result of the Revolution of 1848, settling in Philadelphia where a brother, Leopold, father of Cyrus L. Sulzberger, had settled some ten years before.
Education
Mayer Sulzberger received the degree of A. B. from the Central High School of Philadelphia in 1859, attended a business college.
Career
He first worked as bookkeeper for a business concern, studied law in the office of Moses A. Dropsie, and in 1865 was admitted to the bar. After thirty years of successful practice he was elected in 1895 a judge of the court of common pleas and served by reelection until his retirement, January 3, 1916, being president judge from 1902.
As a judge Sulzberger was penetrating, impartial, and witty. A few of his papers and addresses were printed: "Nominations for Public Office", presented at a meeting of the Philadelphia Social Science Association; "The Practice of Criminal Law"; Politics in a Democracy (1910), address delivered at the Silver Jubilee of Temple University; two lectures on "Medical Jurisprudence".
He gave his law library to the court upon his retirement from the bench. He was subsequently a member of the committee to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania and of the Philadelphia Board of City Trusts.
He was a trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund (1884) and of the Mikveh Israel Congregation of Philadelphia; first president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia in 1875, and president again in 1885. From 1865 he served actively on the board of the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia, founded by his father, and he was also a trustee of the Jefferson Medical College.
As president of the American Jewish Committee from 1906 to 1912 he took an active part in the movement that brought about the abrogation of the treaty of commerce with Russia in the latter year. He was offered appointment as minister to Turkey by President Harrison and as ambassador to Turkey by President Taft, but declined in both cases.
At a time when there was no important collection of Hebraica and Judaica in the United States he expended a considerable part of his income for the purchase of Hebrew manuscripts and incunabula and the assembling of a general Jewish library, which in 1902 he turned over to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
In his youth, Sulzberger translated into English the dictionary of Hebrew authors of Azariah de Rossi and part of Maimonides' "Guide of the Perplexed, " both translations being published serially in the Occident, and for a year after the death of Isaac Leeser he edited that periodical.
After his retirement from the bench he became an honorary lecturer on Jewish jurisprudence and institutes of government in the Dropsie College. He died, unmarried, in his eightieth year.
Views
Sulzberger as a young man was greatly influenced by the Rev. Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, one of the prominent Jewish leaders of the day, and throughout his life he was active in Jewish welfare work and in the promotion of Jewish education and higher Jewish learning in America.
Sulzberger throughout his career showed great interest in Jewish affairs.
Membership
He was a member of the Jewish Publication Society of America. Other organizations he was connected to include: American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Historical Society, Philadelphia Bar Association, Baron de Hirsch Fund, Board of Judges of Phila. , Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, Federation of Jewish Charities of Phila. , Gratz College, Hebrew Education Society of Phila. , Independent Order of Brith Sholom of Phila. , Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia, Oriental Club of Philadelphia, Phila. Board of City Trusts, Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia.
Personality
Sulzberger was a talened orator.