Isaac Bernays was chief rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

.
Bernays was born in Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

. He was the son of Jacob Gera, a boarding house keeper at Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

, and an elder brother of Adolphus Bernays

Adolphus Bernays

Adolphus Bernays was the first professor of German in the King’s College in London, and second professor of German in England.- Biography :...

. After having finished his studies at the University of Würzburg

University of Würzburg

The University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group.-Name:...

, in which city he had been also a disciple of the Talmudist Rabbi Abraham Bing

Abraham Bing

Abraham Bing was born in Frankfurt in 1752, and received his rabbinic training from Nathan Adler. From 1769 to 1778, he served as "Klaus" rabbi in the town of Offenbach am Main. Between 1778-1796 he served as dayan in Frankfurt, and from 1796 to 1814 he served as rabbi of the town in...

, he went to Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 as private tutor in the house of Herr von Hirsch, and afterward lived at Mainz as a private scholar.