Samson Raphael Hirsch, born in Hamburg in 1808, studied in Mannheim and Bonn before taking over the state rabbinate in Oldenburg in 1830. His main focus as rabbi was to improve the education of Jewish citizens by evaluating teachers, proposing them himself, and founding Jewish schools. In Oldenburg he also met his wife Johanna Jüdel. In the following years he still held rabbinates in Emden and Nikolsburg and in later years was considered the main advocate of the neo-orthodox movement of Judaism before he died in Frankfurt am Main in 1888.

Alina Treiger was born in Ukraine in 1979 and founded a Jewish youth club at a young age. Through contacts with various organizations, she began training to become a Jewish community leader in Moscow. Subsequently, at the age of 22, she founded a Jewish progressive congregation in her hometown of Poltava, after which she was offered the opportunity to study "Rabbinic Studies" at the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam. After ordination in 2010, she took over the Jewish communities of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in the same year.