Rabbi Solomon Hirschell (1761, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 – 31 October 1842, London) was the Chief rabbi

Chief Rabbi

Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...

 of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, 1802-42. He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...

 in Britain by excommunicating its leaders.

His name is also spelt Hirschel and Herschell.

His father was a Polish Jew from Galicia Hirschel Levin

Hirschel Levin

Rabbi Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin was Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Berlin, and Rabbi of Halberstadt and Mannheim....

, Chief rabbi of London and Berlin and a friend of Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn

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

. His older brother was Talmudist Saul Berlin

Saul Berlin

Saul Berlin was a German Talmudist and one of the most learned Jews of the Mendelssohnian period.-Early life:...

.