Rabbi Horowitz Lazar (Eleazar) Ben David Joshua Hoeschel was born in Bavaria, Germany, into a religious family and studied with various rabbis and scholars. Isaac Loew Hoffmann von Hoffmannstahl (1828) invited him to come to Vienna to accept the position of Chief Rabbi. He had to accept, however, a lesser title (supervisor of rituals) because the local authorities did not recognize the Jewish Community. Rabbi Lazar Horowitz was strict in matters of the Halakhah. After his death, his sons published in a book, Yad Eleazar, his responsa to problems that were put before him. An important example to his decisions was his agreement to use a sponge instead of the “mezizah” in the circumcision process. Rabbi Lazar Horowitz tried to reconcile differences between different elements in the community. He, together with others, participated in the campaign for eliminating the oath more judaico. He took an active part in the 1848 Revolution and tried to improve the living social and political conditions of the Jews in Austria. Rabbi Lazar Horowitz encouraged Jews to be involved in agriculture. He succeeded in canceling the expulsion of hundreds of families from Vienna (1851). He was the Archduchess Maria Dorothea’ s favourite teacher; she was interested in Hebrew Literature and believed in the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel. His ambivalent stand on different issues in the Jewish religion, especially his attitude towards Messianism, added to his popularity. He lectured in Adolph Jellinek’s Beth ha-midrash and contributed to different periodicals, bringing him many friends and also many adversaries who, like Ezriel Hildsheimer, were much more conservative in their thinking. Rabbi Lazar Horowitz died in Vienna in 1868.