Selig Sigmund Auerbach

Rabbi Selig Sigmund Auerbach (1906-1997), born in Hamburg, Germany, was an Orthodox rabbi in Germany and Conservative movement rabbi in the United States. He studied at the University at Marburg, and afterward, at the University of Berlin. In 1932, he moved to Wurzburg where he worked as an assistant rabbi and high school teacher. In April 1934 he became District Rabbi of Recklinghausen, Westphalia, located near the border of Holland. Before narrowly escaping Europe, his home was set on fire and his pregnant wife lost her child after jumping from a window. In the United States, he took pulpits in Wisconsin and upstate New York. He was the lone dissenting voice in the Conservative movement's vote to ordain women rabbis.