The Pineles Family, continued
For part 1, see Part 1.
Two of the most prominent members of the Pineles family may have come from a branch of the family that had not gone to Lemberg. Hirsch Mendel Pineles (1805-1870), a prominent Jewish scholar, was the author of an important treatise on the Mishnah, and also published work on the Jewish calendar. He also contributed to an important German-language Jewish journal, took an important role in the Haskala (Jewish enlightenment) in Eastern Europe, and led public seminars in philosophy. In 1866, he was included in a thirteen-person delegation representing the Galician Jewish community in meetings with Emperor Franz Joseph and Minister-President (something like a modern prime minister) Count Richard Belcredi. Tasked with requesting the repeal of an anti-Semitic statute, the group was warmly received by both Franz Joseph and Belcredi and the statute was never put in place. For more information, see Hirsch Mendel Pineles (opens in new window).
Even more prominent than Hirsch Mendel was his son Samuel. Born in Brody, about fifty miles from Lemberg, Samuel Pineles (1843-1928) was one of the foremost Zionists in his generation. After establishing Jewish resettlement in Romania for refugees from Russian pogroms, he helped organize Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine in the 1920s. In 1897, Samuel Pineles served as the Vice President of the First International Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, where he worked closely with Theodore Herzl. Several streets and towns in Israel are named after him. For further details, see Samuel Pineles (Yivo Encyclopedia) (opens in new window) or Samuel Pineles (Jewish Virtual Library) (opens in new window).
In the more recent past, noted American graphic designer and art director Cipe Pineles (1908-1991) may have been a member of the family. Born in Vienna, her father Hillel Pineles came from western Galicia in what is now the village of Gliniany, Poland. Whether they came from a distant branch of the same family or from an unrelated one remains to be seen.
Research on this fascinating family is still ongoing; keep this page bookmarked and check back for new developments.
