Bio:H. M. Bien

Rabbi Herman Bien was born in Germany in 1831 and emigrated to the United States in 1854, serving first in New Haven, Connecticut. In March 1856 he was called to Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco as a "Lecturer", after the congregation rejected Rabbi Julius Eckman. Eckman represented the Orthodox movement, while Bien represented the reform movement, and the two established competing Jewish newspapers in San Francisco, with Bien founding the Voice of Israel and then The Pacific Messenger. Bien was a "charismatic, beguiling" individual, but was not ordained as a rabbi, and with his lack of a proper education he did not please the congregation for long. During the late 1850's, Bien published Samson and Delilah, first as a play and then as a verse drama, in San Francisco. Bien then went to Portland, Oregon where he "pretended rabbinical ordination" and served as the rabbi at Temple Beth Israel during 1860. This was followed by a varied career, including running a general merchandise store in New York and newspaper work in Nevada. He moved to Virginia City, Nevada early in 1864. When Nevada became a state later that year, Bien was elected to the first legislature. In 1881, we find Bien as the minister of Beth Shalom Congregation in Chicago, then in Dallas, Texas, and finally in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1883. During these later years (1880-1990), he was "much devoted to literature", writing several religious-themed books and plays. When he became the spiritual leader of Congregation Anshe Chesed in Vicksburg, he was already known as the “poet Rabbi”.

"He wrote several volumes of poetry, the most impressive of which, Ben Beor, was written while in Vicksburg. He was well-loved by his congregants for his excellent oratory skills. On April 22, 1895, however, he was found near death at the Florence Hotel in Birmingham, where he had left a suicide note for his family and friends revealing his disappointment with his life. The suicide happened just after he was replaced at his Vicksburg pulpit, and followed a job rejection from Temple Emanuel in Birmingham."

Date of birth via Jews in Nevada: a history. --Dirk P Broer 21:43, 1 October 2011 (UTC) --

The Image of the Jew in American Literature, Louis Harap, 2003.

Mississippi home-places, Elmo Howell, 1988.

The Chronicles of Emanu-El, Jacob Voorsanger, 1923.

Jewish voices of the California gold rush, Ava Fran Khan, 2002.

Visions of reform: Congregation Emanu-El and the Jews of San Francisco 1849-1999, Fred Rosenbaum, 2000.

"Julius Eckman and Herman Bien: The Battling Rabbis of San Francisco", 3 parts, in Western States Jewish History, 1983, 15(2-4), pp. 107-130, 232-253, 341-359.

Encyclopedia of American Jewish history, Volume 1, Norwood & Pollack, 2007.

History of Anshe Chesed Congregation, Vicksburg.