Born in Hungary, he studied at the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary and from 1875 was rabbi in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1893 he was appointed head of the newly founded Vienna Rabbinical Seminary (Israelitische-theologische Lehranstalt). Here he trained generations of rabbis and was a strong force in the Vienna community. His vast scholarly output was devoted primarily to the study of the Talmud and its methodology.