Azriel Hildesheimer

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Israel Azriel Hildesheimer was a German rabbi, and leader of Orthodox Judaism. He is regarded as a pioneering "Moderniser" of Orthodox Judaism in Germany and is sometimes regarded as a founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

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Biography

Hildesheimer was born in Hildesheim, a small town near Hanover, Germany (Some believe he was born in Halberstadt) May 20, 1820; he was the son of Rabbi Löb Glee Hildesheimer.

He attended the "Hasharat Zwi" school in Halberstadt, and, after reaching the age of seventeen, the Yeshiva of Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger in Altona. The Chacham Isaac Bernays was one of his teachers and his model as a preacher. While studying rabbinic literature Hildesheimer was also devoting much attention to classical languages.

In 1840 he returned to Halberstadt, took his diploma at the Dom gymnasium, and entered the University of Berlin; he became a disciple of the dominant Hegelian school. He studied Semitic languages and mathematics, and continued his study in Talmud. In 1842 he went to Halle and continued his studies under Gesenius and Roediger (Ph.D. 1844, his dissertation being "Ueber die Rechte Art der Bibelinterpretation"). Hildesheimer then returned to Halberstadt, where he married Henrietta Hirsch.

In 1851 he became Rabbi of Eisenstadt (Kis Marton), Hungary. His first notable act there was to found a parochial school, in which correct German was used, and in which modern principles of pedagogy were adopted, in teaching Jewish as well as secular subjects. Hildesheimer initially introduced limited secular studies in the Jewish elementary school. The older students received a secular education as well, but with a focus on mathematics and other subjects that would enhance their understanding of gemara.

Next, Hildesheimer established a rabbinical school, which within a few years attracted a large number of pupils. (After beginning with six students in 1851, the yeshiva had 128 students in 1868, including one from the United States.) His son, Hirsch Hildesheimer, was a professor at the rabbinical seminary. Hildesheimer’s seminary was the only institution under Orthodox auspices in which students were required to have a significant secular education before they were admitted. It was expected that they would also continue their general education at the university level. Also unusual in the yeshiva was that time was set aside for studying Tanach and the Hebrew language.

In Berlin at that time the Orthodox minority, constituting about 200 families, dissatisfied with the appointment of Abraham Geiger (a liberal Reform Jew), were in search of an Orthodox rabbi of standing who would represent them. Their choice fell upon Hildesheimer. He went to Berlin in 1869 as rabbi and director of the Beth midrash. He soon established a religious school and a yeshiva (rabbinical seminary), which thirty former pupils of his at once entered; Hildesheimer thus became the real intellectual founder and leader of the community Adath Yisrael.

Hildesheimer died in Berlin, July 12, 1899.

Leadership

Hildesheimer was "simple in his habits and fearless"; he had an unusual capacity for work; and his great Talmudic learning was joined to practical administrative ability. Financially independent, he never accepted remuneration for his rabbinical activity.

In addition to the philanthropic activities connected with his own congregation, Hildesheimer took special interest in the welfare of the Jews of Palestine. In 1860, when the missionary society of Palestine provided seventy free dwellings for homeless Jews, Hildesheimer himself built houses in Jerusalem for the free use of pilgrims and of the poor.

In the service of the poor and needy in Germany, Austria, Russia, and even in Abyssinia and Persia, no labor was too great and no journey too long for him, so that he came to be known as the "international schnorrer".

Campaign against Reform Judaism

Hildesheimer, aided by Mayer Lehmann, the editor of "Israelit" in Mainz, exerted his whole energy in the fight against Reform Judaism. As early as 1847 he had energetically opposed, as the representative of the communities in the Magdeburg district, the Reform attempts of Ludwig Philippson; in 1861 he took his stand against Abraham Geiger by criticizing the latter's pamphlet, "Notwendigkeit und Mass ciner Reform des Jüdischen Gottesdienstes" (Mayence, 1861).

This firm conviction that traditional Judaism need have no fear of the light of European culture determined his attitude and his activity in Hungary and Germany from the start, and gave him the strength of a man with a definite aim. It is evident, however, that Hildesheimer, who would listen to no compromise, was destined only to widen the gap between the Reform and the Orthodox Jews of Germany.

Modernisation within Orthodoxy

Along with Samson Raphael Hirsch, Hildesheimer is regarded as a pioneering "Moderniser" of Orthodox Judaism in Germany. In an address delivered at his rabbinical seminary and defining his position he said:

"Unconditional agreement with the culture of the present day; harmony between Judaism and science; but also unconditional steadfastness in the faith and traditions of Judaism: these constitute the program of the New Community, the standard round which gather the Israelites of Berlin who are faithful to the Law."

Comparison with Samson Raphael Hirsch

There is some question, as to whether both Hirsch and Hildesheimer can be regarded directly as founders of Modern Orthodox Judaism; in fact, of the two, Hildesheimer is more likely classifiable as such.

It is true that Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz - a philosophy of Orthodox Judaism which formalises a relationship between traditionally observant Judaism and the modern world - provides a philosophical underpin for today's Modern orthodoxy. At the same time, however, Hirsch's stance on political and social issues differ from those of contemporary Modern Orthodoxy: Hirsch separated himself and his community from the larger Jewish community and was, at best, unsympathetic to Zionist efforts. By contrast, Hildesheimer undertook a variety of actions which render him a Modern Orthodox activist and institution-builder. The most important of these, as discussed above, are:

  1. Hildesheimer established Jewish education for males and females which included both religious and secular studies.
  2. He established a seminary which incorporated not only secular studies but academic scholarship.
  3. Hildesheimer maintained traditional Jewish attachments to the Land of Israel and worked with the non-Orthodox on its behalf.
  4. Not being a sectarian as was Hirsch, Hildesheimer worked with communal leaders, even non-Orthodox ones, on issues that affected the community, such as anti-Semitism and ritual slaughtering.

It is noted, though, that as regards secular education, Hirsch's approach is somewhat more in line with contemporary Modern Orthodoxy. Unlike Hirsch, Hildesheimer was "the pragmatist rather than the philosopher": he advocated secular studies alongside, but clearly not synthesized with, Torah, and to some extent as a concession to the needs of the day.

Orthodox Opposition

The introduction into the Eisenstadt School of modern methods of education and of secular learning was resented by the Orthodox. (Hildesheimer's "liberal tendencies and sympathy with modern culture" soon changed this resentment "to positive antipathy".) Eventually his Yeshiva was denounced before the representatives of the government at Oedenburg, the result being that the government ordered the school closed within twenty-four hours and the pupils removed from the city. Soon afterward, however (1858), Hildesheimer succeeded in obtaining state recognition for the Yeshiva. Interestingly, the Yeshiva also had opponents on the left: Reform saw it as a threat because its graduates would be equipped to defend Orthodoxy against Reform's inroads.

About 1860, Akiva Joseph, a Hasidic leader, placed Hildesheimer under a ban as "not truly a sincere Jew" ("emessdiger Jüd"). Hildesheimer, however, seems to have cared little for the ban.

At the Hungarian Jewish Congress of December 14, 1868, Hildesheimer at first endeavored to associate himself with the old Orthodox party. When the impossibility of this union became evident, he formed his followers, thirty-five in number, into a separate group, which may be called the "Cultured Orthodox" group. In the Hungarian Jewish Congress held at Budapest in 1869 he defined this party as representing a "faithful adherence to traditional teachings combined with an effective effort to keep in touch with the spirit of progress".

Writings

In 1876 Hildesheimer celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ministry; on the celebration of his seventieth birthday, in 1890, his friends and pupils published a literary "Jubelschrift" (Berlin, 1890). He contributed articles to other Journals and Newspapers: the "Jüdische Presse," to "Ha-Lebanon", to "He-Chalutz", to "Archives Israélites". His son, Hirsch was editor of the "Jüdische Presse".

Hildesheimer's other writings include:

  • "Materialien zur Beurtheilung der Septuaginta," in "Orient, Lit." 1848, Nos. 30 et seq.;
  • "Die Epitaphien der Grabsteine auf dem Hiesigen [of Halberstadt] Jüdischen Friedhofe," 1846;
  • "Verwaltung der Jüdischen Gemeinde Halberstadt," 1849;
  • "Offener Brief an den Redakteur des Ben Chananja," Vienna, 1858;
  • "Minchah Tehorah," Presburg, 1860;
  • "Halakhot Gedoloth nach der Handschrift der Vaticana," Berlin, 1888.

See also

External links and references

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