 1869 edition of Der Israelit | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Marcus Lehmann |
| Founded | 1860 |
| Language | German |
| Ceased publication | November 3, 1938 (78 years) |
| City | Mainz Frankfurt |
| Country | Germany |
| Circulation | 4,050 (maximum circulation) |
Der Israelit was a German Orthodox Jewish weekly newspaper that circulated from May 15, 1860, until November 3, 1938, when it was shut down by the Nazi party. [1]
The newspaper was initially founded in 1860 in Mainz by Orthodox rabbi Marcus Lehmann. [2] In 1870, it was merged with Yeshurun, which had been established in 1854. Between 1871 and 1882, a Hebrew translation of it appeared in an appendix of Ha-Levanon, which at the time was independently published in Paris. [3] Between 1873 and 1879, a concurrent edition circulated in Yiddish. Following Lehmann's death in 1890, his son, Oscar, inherited the position of editor. In 1906, the publication was moved from Mainz to Frankfurt. At the same time, Jacob Rosenheim purchased the newspaper and used it to promote World Agudath Israel's views on the path of Orthodox Jewry. [4] In 1908, Jewish writer Selig Schachnowitz was appointed the new editor of the paper. [5]
Starting in 1933, Der Israelit openly reported on Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany, and even reported on information about Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany, including Osthofen concentration camp. However, they were prevented from publishing anything that took a critical opinion of the said actions of the regime. [6] Following the publication on November 3, 1938, the paper was shut down by force by the Nazi regime, who banned its distribution in its entirety.
Der Israelit was considered "a major organ of Orthodox Judaism" in Germany, [5] and took a traditional and more conservative religious approach, as opposed to the more Reform Jewish Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, whose denomination and social change it heavily criticized. [7] Over time, the paper became one of the most widely circulated spokesmen in Orthodox Jewish journalism in Germany. [8]
It featured serialized narrative historicals by Lehmann, designed to attract interest of youth, whilst promoting traditionalism of modern developments and changes to other branches of Judaism. The stories served as a historical mirror of the lives of Central European Jewry in the 19th century. They were collected and published between 1918 and 1976 in a ten-volume series, which has been printed in multiple editions. They were reworked in the 1990s by Rayzel Friedman and became popular among Ultra-Orthodox Jews when published in Hamodia. [9]
Samson Raphael Hirsch was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed neo-Orthodoxy, his philosophy, together with that of Azriel Hildesheimer, has had a considerable influence on the development of Orthodox Judaism.
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term also used in Christianity.
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Azriel Hildesheimer was a German rabbi and leader of Orthodox Judaism. He is regarded as a pioneering moderniser of Orthodox Judaism in Germany and as a founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism.
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.
Leo Baeck was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi era. After the Second World War, he settled in London, in the United Kingdom, where he served as the chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry was established, and Baeck was its first international president. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
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World Agudath Israel, usually known as the Aguda, was established in the early twentieth century as the political arm of Ashkenazi Torah Judaism. It succeeded Agudas Shlumei Emunei Yisroel in 1912. Its base of support was located in Eastern Europe before the Second World War but, due to the revival of the Hasidic movement, it included Orthodox Jews throughout Europe. Prior to World War II and the Holocaust, Agudath Israel operated a number of Jewish educational institutions throughout Europe. After the war, it has continued to operate such institutions in the United States as Agudath Israel of America, and in Israel. Agudath Israel is guided by its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel and the USA.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) is the international umbrella organization for the various branches of Reform, Liberal and Progressive Judaism, as well as the separate Reconstructionist Judaism. The WUPJ is based in 40 countries with 1,275 affiliated synagogues, of which 1,170 are Reform, Progressive, or Liberal and 105 Reconstructionist. It claims to represent a total of some 1.8 million people, both registered constituents and non-member identifiers. The WUPJ states that it aims to create common ground between its constituents and to promote Progressive Judaism in places where individuals and groups are seeking authentic, yet modern ways of expressing themselves as Jews. It seeks to preserve Jewish integrity wherever Jews live, to encourage integration without assimilation, to deal with modernity while preserving the Jewish experience, and to strive for equal rights and social justice.
Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) haCohen Weiss is an American Open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who led the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York until 2015. He is the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for men and Yeshivat Maharat for women, rabbinical seminaries that are tied to Open Orthodoxy, a breakaway movement that Weiss originated, which is to the left of Modern Orthodox Judaism and to the right of Conservative Judaism. He is co-founder of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a rabbinical association that is a liberal alternative to the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, and founder of the grassroots organization Coalition for Jewish Concerns – Amcha.
The Congregation Shearith Israel, often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 2 West 70th Street, at Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States.
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Adam S. Ferziger is an intellectual and social historian whose research focuses on Jewish religious movements and religious responses to secularization and assimilation in modern and contemporary North America, Europe and Israel. Ferziger holds the Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with Derekh Erez Movement in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. He is a senior associate at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and is co-convener of the annual Oxford Summer Institute for Modern and Contemporary Judaism. He has served as a visiting professor/fellow in College of Charleston (2017), Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK (2013), University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (2012), and University of Shandong, Jinan, China (2005). In 2011, he received Bar-Ilan's "Outstanding Lecturer" award. Ferziger has published articles in leading academic journals of religion, history, and Jewish studies and is the author or editor of seven books including: Exclusion and Hierarchy: Orthodoxy, Nonobservance and the Emergence of Modern Jewish Identity ; Orthodox Judaism – New Perspectives, edited with Aviezer Ravitzky and Yoseph Salmon ; and most recently Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism, which was the winner of a 2015 National Jewish Book Award.
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