R. Jolles was born into a rabbinical family in 1840. A disciple of the Ruzin Chassidic Dynastey, he was a great scholar and is party to many rabbinical decrees and decisions of his generation.

Kalush, a city in Ivano-Frankovsk oblast in southwestern Ukraine, formerly within Poland; in 1772 it passed to Austria, reverting to Poland in 1919, and within the U.S.S.R. from 1939. The salt mines in the area around Kalush became noted as early as the 15th century; and were leased on occasion by Jews during the following century. An organized community existed in the city by 1650. The great synagogue was completed in 1825. The community numbered 4,363 in 1910, about half the total population, and maintained six synagogues and charitable and religious institutions.