Career
Jewish historians maintain that that day was August 18, 1587. Wahl had thirteen children, including the renowned Polish rabbi, Meir Wahl Katzenellenbogen. Saul"s father was Samuel Judah Katzenellenbogen.
The story that Saul was briefly king of Lithuania is rejected by historiographers because there is no physical evidence to prove its veracity one way or the other, but it has gained a firm place in the folklore of the Jewish people.
The version of the story set forth in the Jewish Encyclopedia reads as follows:
Historian Gustav Karpeles writes that "an historical kernel lies hidden in the legend" that, he says, "rests upon an historical substratum". Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł, he says, made a widely publicized pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
While returning, wrote Radziwiłł, he was attacked in Italy by robbers and was left in Ancona without any money. His pleas for help were ignored by all except a Jewish merchant, who alone believed his claim that he was a Polish noble.
The merchant provided him with funds to return to Poland.
Karpeles concludes that Radziwiłł"s narrative is consistent with the narrative of the Jewish tale and that the lone Jewish merchant who had helped Radziwiłł was Samuel Judah Katzenellenbogen, Saul Wahl"s father.