Chaim Bloch was born in Nagy-Bocsko, Hungary, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, where he studied in various yeshivas and was ordained as rabbi. To earn a living, however, he found work in the field of business. He continued with his studies in Kabbala and Jewish law.
With the outbreak of World War I, in 1914, when the Russian Army entered into Galicia, Bloch, with other Jews, fled to Vienna. In 1915, he served as chaplain in the Austrian-Hungarian Army, spending about nine months in trenches. He was wounded, declared unfit for active service and assigned to garrison duty in a POW camp at Csot, Hungary.
It was during this time when he wrote his internationally acclaimed Der Prager Golem von seiner “Geburt” bis zum seinen “Tod” (Vienna, 1919, 2nd edition Berlin, 1920). From 1917, Bloch contributed to Osterreichische Wochenschrift (founded by his tutor, Joseph Samuel Bloch), Neues Wiener Journal and other Viennese Jewish publications.
At the same time, from 1918 to 1920, he was rabbi in the independent city of Liesing, near Vienna, but not being a citizen he was compelled to leave. In 1923 he visited the U.S.A. seeking patrons for his work: Ozar Chayim, an encyclopedia of rabbinical texts from Responsa literature. In 1932 Bloch became co-editor of Juedisches Jahrbuch fuer Oesterreich 5693 (1932/33), Vienna.
With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, Bloch, in 1933, turned to writing against anti-Semitism, Streicher and other Nazis revived old blood libels against Jews in the press by publishing the Blut und Eros im judischen Schrifttum und Leben (Vienna, 1935,) a complete exposure of anti-Semitic accusations. In March 1938, following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, Bloch was imprisoned and detained in a concentration camp. His Ozar Chayim was confiscated and destroyed.
After being released in August 1938 he moved to the U.K. via the Netherlands. In 1939 he emigrated to the U.S.A., where he continued to write in German, Hebrew, English and Yiddish. In 1963 he became almost blind. Then he made use of his talent as storyteller and of his extensive knowledge of Chassidism and mysticism, describing Eastern European Jewry to the Western World. Bloch was an adamant and outspoken defender of the Jews.
Rabbi Chaim Bloch was a very prolific writer. Among his best known works are: Ahnenstolz, Biographie des Rabbi Elieser Lippman von Strelitz (Budapest, 1904); Die Gemeinde der Chassidim (Berlin, 1920); Israel der Gotteskampfer (Berlin, 1920); Hirsch Ostropoler, ein judischer Till Eulenspiegel and Ostjudischer Humor (both in Berlin 1921); Talmudische Weisheit, altjuedische Wechselgesprache (Vienna, 1921), Gottes Volk und seine Lehre (Leipzig, 1922); Das Juedische Amerika (Vienna, 1926); Kabbalistische Sagen (Laipzig 1925); Lebenserinnerungen des Kabbalisten Vital (Vienna, 1926); Traume sind keine Schaume (Prague, 1929); Priester der Liebe, die Welt der Chassidim (Zurich, 1930); Der Judenhass im Spiegel der Jahrtausende (1935), Das Geliebte Land, Sagen aus Palestina (Vienna and Jerusalem, 1937). In New York Bloch published: Hekhal le Divre Hazal ve’Pitgameihem (1948); Kum-Riv et heHarim (1948/49); Ve Da Mah she Tashiv (1949); Mi Natan li Meshiah Ya’akov ve Israel levozezin’ (Bronx, N.Y., 1957); Masa Federbusch (Bronx, N.Y, 1959); Dovev Sifte Yeshenim (1959). His Erzalungen und Legenden was published in Darmstadt (1966).
Chaim Bloch was a member of P.E.N. (Publicists, Essayists and Novelists); of ‘Anshe Emet’; Bronx, New York, and Habonim, New York, and he received the Title of ‘Professor’ from President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia.