Hirsch Janow was a Polish rabbi, who, on account of his great keenness in Talmudical discussions, was commonly called "Hirsch Ḥarif" (the acute). When in 1776 his father-in-law, Raphael Kohn, was elected rabbi of the 3 congregations Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Altona

Altona, Hamburg

Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...

, and Wandsbeck, he succeeded him as rabbi of Posen

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

. In the following year he was called to the rabbinate of Fürth

Fürth

The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....

. In 1779 he interdicted Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...

's German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 translation of the Pentateuch. Salomon Maimon

Salomon Maimon

Salomon ben Josua Maimon was a German philosopher born of Jewish parentage in Belarus.-Early years:...

, in his Lebensgeschichte (pp 280 et seq.), highly praises Hirsch Janow for his benevolence. He died at Fürth, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, on Nov. 13, 1785.