Rabbi Akiva Weingarten (born December 23, 1984, in Monsey, New York) is a German-American liberal rabbi. He serves as the chief Rabbi of the state of Saxony, Germany, [1] the rabbi of the city of Dresden, Germany from 2019, and the Liberal Jewish community "Migwan" in Basel, Switzerland. [2] He is the founder of the Haichal Besht synagogue in Bnei Brak, Israel, the Haichal Besht synagogue in Berlin, and the Besht Yeshiva in Dresden.
Weingarten grew up in the Satmar Hasidic community in New Jersey. The eldest of eleven siblings, his mother tongue is Yiddish. His family on his father's side emigrated from post-World War II Hungary, and his maternal ancestors came from Lithuania. He was a "critical thinker" from an early age, and asked questions in the yeshivot, which was met with rejection in his Hasidic community. [3]
He received his first rabbinic ordination at the age of 17. The following year, he went to Israel to continue his studies, and lived in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak for ten years. At the age of 19, he was engaged and married. Two years later, he was already the father of two children. In Israel, he was ordained a rabbi two more times. [3]
In 2014, Weingarten left Israel and the Hasidic community, and went to Germany. He studied Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam, until he was appointed rabbi to Dresden and Basel in 2019. [2]
Akiva Weingarten has been rabbi of the "Migwan" Liberal community in Basel and the city of Dresden since August 2019. There, he took over the office of his predecessor Alexander Nachama. [4] Today, Weingarten supports Jews who have left the Haredi communities to get integrated in a life outside of the strictly religious environment. [5] In 2017, he founded the liberal Hasidic community "Besht-Berlin", where Kabbalat Shabbat services, Kiddush, and joint study groups were held regularly. [6] In 2021 he left the "Jüdische Gemeinde zu Dresden" where he had served as the Rabbi from 2019 until 2021 and founded a new community "Jüdische Kultusgemeinde Dresden" [7] that has about 200 members, [8] the community's synagogue is the Synagogue Neustadt in Dresden. [9]
Weingarten is unique as a Liberal rabbi who wears Hasidic clothing such as the shtreimel and kaftan on Shabbat. [10] In his sermons, he often uses Hasidic stories and explanations about the Torah, along with a liberal and up-to-date interpretation. He describes his approach to Judaism as "liberal Hasidic". [11]
Ger is a Polish Hasidic dynasty originating from the town of Góra Kalwaria, Poland, where it was founded by Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866), known as the "Chiddushei HaRim". Ger is a branch of Peshischa Hasidism, as Yitzchak Meir Alter was a leading disciple of Simcha Bunim of Peshischa (1765–1827). Before the Holocaust, followers of Ger were estimated to number in excess of 100,000, making it the largest and most influential Hasidic group in Poland. Today, the movement is based in Jerusalem, and its membership is estimated at 11,859 families, as of 2016, most of whom live in Israel, making Ger the largest Hasidic dynasty in Israel. However, there are also well-established Ger communities in the United States and in Europe. In 2019, some 300 families of followers led by Shaul Alter, split off from the dynasty led by his cousin Yaakov Aryeh Alter.
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares, and had a population of 218,357 in 2022. It is one of the poorest and most densely populated cities in Israel, and the fourth-most densely populated city in the world.
Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work Chatam Sofer, Chasam Sofer, or Hatam Sofer, was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Yaakov Aryeh Alter is the eighth, and current, Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he has held since 1996. He lives in Israel, and has followers there and in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He is a member of the Presidium of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel.
Belz is a Hasidic dynasty founded in the town of Belz in Western Ukraine, near the Polish border, historically the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The group was founded in the early 19th century by Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, also known as the Sar Shalom, and led by his son, Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach, and grandson, Rabbi Yissachar Dov, and great-grandson, Rabbi Aharon, before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. While Aharon managed to escape Europe, together with his brother Rabbi Mordechai Rokeach, most of the Belz Hasidim were murdered in the Holocaust. Aharon re-established the Hasidic community in Israel following World War II. As of the 2020s, Belz has sizable communities in Israel, Western Europe, and the Anglosphere.
Spinka is the name of a Hasidic group within Haredi Judaism. The group originated in a city called Szaplonca, in Máramaros County, Kingdom of Hungary.
Shemaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek. He was a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society on legal and ethical practice. Known as the Gadol HaDor and the "Prince of Torah", much of his prominence came through Torah education and advice about Jewish law.
Jewish education is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah study, from the early days of studying the Tanakh.
Gadol or godol is used by religious Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of the generation.
The history of the Jews in Switzerland extends back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 13th century.
The history of the Jews in Antwerp, a major city in the modern country of Belgium, goes back at least eight hundred years. Jewish life was first recorded in the city in the High Middle Ages. While the Jewish population grew and waned over the centuries, by the beginning of World War II Antwerp had a thriving Jewish community comprising some 35,000, with many Jews connected to the city's diamond industry. The Nazi occupation of Antwerp from 1940 and The Holocaust decimated the city’s Jewish population. By the time of Antwerp's liberation in September 1944, the Jewish population had fallen to around 1,200.
Yochanan Sofer was the rebbe of the Erlau dynasty. He was born in Eger, Hungary, where his father and grandfather were also rebbes. After surviving the Holocaust, he founded a yeshiva, first in Hungary and then a few years later in Jerusalem.
Erlau, is a Haredi dynasty of Hungarian origin, which follows the teachings of the Chasam Sofer and is often considered Hasidic.
Radomsk is a hasidic dynasty named after the town of Radomsko in Łódź province, south-central Poland. The dynasty was founded in 1843 by Shlomo Hakohen Rabinowicz. His son, grandson and great-grandson also led the dynasty, which had thousands of followers. On the eve of World War II, Radomsk was the third largest Hasidic dynasty in Poland, after Ger and Alexander.
Binyamin Tzvi (Benny) Lau, is an Israeli rabbi, community leader, activist, author, and public speaker who lives in Jerusalem. He is the head of 929: Tanach B'yachad and headed the Kehillat Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem for 18 years. He is also the head of the "Human Rights and Judaism in Action Project" at the Israel Democracy Institute. Previously, he was the director of a number of programs at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem, including their Center for Judaism and Society, their Institute for Social Justice, and their Israel Institute for Conversion Policy. He is also a well-known writer, and makes frequent appearances in the media.
Ahron Daum was an Israeli-born Modern-Orthodox rabbi, educator, author, and former chief rabbi of Frankfurt am Main from 1987 to 1993. From 1995 until his death in 2018, he was a lecturer at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium.
Yisrael Baruch Mordechai "Motty" Steinmetz is a prominent Hasidic singer.
Timeline of attacks against synagogues in Israel documents anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism against synagogue buildings and property in Israel. Vandalism of synagogues is not uncommon in Israel.
The Besht Yeshiva Dresden is a Jewish educational institution in Dresden, Germany and the first founded Yeshiva in East Germany after the Shoah, as well as the first liberal-Hasidic yeshiva in the world. It was named after the founder of the Hasidic movement, Baal Shem Tov.
The Synagogue Neustadt is a liberal neo-Hasidic Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Eisenbahnstr, in Dresden, in the state of Saxony, Germany. The congregation was founded in 2021 and, since 2022, has occupied a mid-19th century building, built in 1839 as the main hall of the former Leipzig train station in Dresden, between the Blaue-Fabrik and Hanse 3.
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