Rabbi and author; born at Sklow, government of Mohilev, in 1852, and removed at an early age with his father to St. Petersburg, where the latter became chief shoḥet. Chaikin was educated for the rabbinate, and obtained several rabbinical diplomas, among others one from Rabbi Spektor of Kovno. After the riots of 1881-82 he emigrated to Paris, where he served as rabbi of the Polish Jews from 1883 to 1887; but then returned to Russia and was rabbi at Rostov-on-the-Don from 1888 to 1889. Being expelled from Russia in 1890, he went to England, and in 1892 was appointed rabbi of Sheffield, England, and in 1901 of the Federation of Synagogues, London.
Chaikin is the author of "Apologie des Juifs," Paris, 1887, and "Celebrities of the Jews," Sheffield, 1889.
Categories: [Jewish encyclopedia 1906]