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Samuel Kohn

Hungarian rabbi, historian (1841-1920)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ1114983
Source-derived summary

Samuel Kohn (1841–1920) was a Hungarian rabbi in Budapest from 1866 to 1905, time he was the Chief Rabbi of Budapest. He is remembered today as the author of A szombatosok, történetök, dogmatikájok és irodalmok ("The Sabbatarians: a complete history and dogmatic literature", Budapest 1889, German translation Die Sabbatarier in Siebenbürgen Leipzig 1894) concerning András Eőssi and other 16th Century Transylvanian Szekler Sabbatarians. Kohn's study coincided with Jewish interest in the sect, and in the following years most were absorbed into Judaism.

Kohn was a prominent champion of the pro-Magyarization program of Neolog Judaism and in order to bolster this program he argued for the mixed Khazar and Magyar ancestry of Hungarian Jews, as opposed to Israelite ancestry, during the 1880s.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Samuel Kohn” is hungarian rabbi, historian (1841-1920). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Samuel, Kohn and Hungarian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1841, 1920, 1866, 1905—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1841-09-21, 1841—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Samuel, Kohn and Hungarian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “hungarian rabbi, historian (1841-1920)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1114983. VIAF identifies the subject as 71441395. The Library of Congress control number is nb2004305870. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1841, 1920, 1866 and 1905.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Samuel Kohn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Samuel Kohn primary sources, Samuel Kohn archive and Samuel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Samuel Kohn”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Samuel Kohn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.