Hugo Schiff (rabbi)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabbi Dr. Hugo Schiff around 1940

Hugo Schiff (born November 28, 1892 in Hoffenheim ; died May 4, 1986 in Red Bank , New Jersey , USA ) was a liberal German rabbi , teacher and literary scholar .

Life

Hugo Schiff grew up as the son of the cultural officer and cantor Max Schiff and Pauline, née Brader, in Mannheim, where he attended secondary school until he passed his final exams.

From 1911 Hugo Schiff studied philosophy and new philology at the University of Heidelberg , from 1913 at the University of Breslau and, in parallel, at the Jewish Theological Seminar in Breslau . During the First World War he was initially a military nurse in a reserve hospital in Mannheim, then a field assistant rabbi in the German army on the western front . After the war he continued his studies in Breslau and at the University of Erlangen . His university teachers included Wilhelm Windelband , Karl Jaspers , Heinrich Schneegans , Julius Guttmann and Richard Hönigswald , and at the rabbinical seminary he studied with Marcus Brann , Saul Horovitz and Albert Lewkowitz .

In September 1919 the rabbinical student and Johanna (Hannah) Bodenheimer married in Mannheim. She was the daughter of Salomon and Hermine, nee Weiss.

In 1920 Hugo Schiff received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen with a literary study on Ralph Waldo Emerson . In January 1923 he passed the rabbinical exam and came to Braunschweig as a regional rabbi . From July 1925 to March 1939 he was the city and conference rabbi of the Israelite community in Karlsruhe and was district rabbi for the Karlsruhe-Pforzheim area. In addition to these offices, Hugo Schiff was a religion teacher at secondary schools and supervised religious education in Baden's elementary schools .

Rabbi Schiff's tenure was marked by reforms towards equality . In 1928 he took part in the meetings of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Berlin as a delegate from Baden . So worked z. B. the composer and singer Ruth Poritzky as organist of the community; she and the soprano Elsa Eis performed the Chanukah chants in the synagogue as a substitute alongside the chief cantor Simon Metzger; Hannah Schiff performed Haftarot and psalms for the community evening .

In 1933 Hugo Schiff founded the Lehrhaus Chaim Nachman Bialik at Karlsruhe Kronenstrasse 62 , which offered language courses for emigrants (especially Ivrit ), book and art exhibitions, concerts, and religious and historical lectures. There spoke u. a. Martin Buber and Leo Baeck .

Alongside Hugo Schiff, Dr. Hans Andorn as the second city rabbi in Karlsruhe, and Ulrich Steuer in the following years .

As a result of the November pogroms in 1938 , Rabbiner Schiff was imprisoned for a few weeks in the Dachau concentration camp , but was then able to emigrate with his wife to the USA in March 1939, as the Adas Israel community in Washington, DC promised him a job as Assistant Rabbi . Dr. Schiff brought a Torah scroll saved from destruction there.

His parents Max and Pauline ship were after 1940 Gurs kidnapped , where the mother died after a short time; the father was also able to emigrate to the USA.

From 1939 to 1948 Hugo Schiff was rabbi of the Beth El Congregation in Alexandria (Virginia) , from 1948 to 1955 deputy rabbi of the Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington DC Between 1944 and 1959 Hugo Schiff was visiting professor for Jewish literature and cultural history at Howard University in Washington DC.

Rabbi Schiff's estate is in the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio .

Works (selection)

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson's personality shaping. Attempt to systematically present his works . Ladenburg: Nerlinger, 1919. 50 p. (= Erlangen, Phil. Diss. 1920)
  • Nathan Stein-Schrift: Works by Rabbis of Baden / ed. by H. Schiff. Karlsruhe: Liepmannssohn, 1938. 183 pp.

swell

  • Biographical handbook of German-speaking emigration after 1933 / ed. from the Institute for Contemporary History Munich ... under d. Overall management by Werner Röder ... Part 2. The arts, sciences, and literature. Munich: Saur, 1999
  • Josef Werner: swastika and Jewish star. The fate of the Karlsruhe Jews in the Third Reich . Karlsruhe: Badenia, 2nd ed. 1990, pp. 91-92 and other.
  • Dr. Hugo B. Schiff: "CV". Karlsruhe City Archives, 1 / AEST 36.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annual directory of university publications , vol. XXXVI 1920, p. 645
  2. ^ Annual report of the Jewish Theological Seminar, Fraenckelscher Foundation for 1913 , Breslau: Schatzky 1914, p. 32
  3. ↑ "CV". In: Hugo Schiff: Ralph Waldo Emersons shaping the personality [...]. Phil. Diss. Erlangen 1920, final sheet.
  4. ↑ cf. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/l/e/v/Annette-L-Levy/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0034.html
  5. ↑ cf. Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt , Issue B, 14th year 1936, No. 23 of 9 December 1936, p. 7.
  6. ↑ ibid., Volume 12, 1934, No. 3 of March 20, 1934, p. 13
  7. ↑ cf. J. Werner: Swastika and Jewish Star , p. 92
  8. ^ The American synagogue: a historical dictionary and sourcebook . 1996, p. 90
  9. ↑ http://www.jhsgw.org/exhibitions/online/jewishwashington/exhibit-images/rabbi-hugo-schiff-beth-el-hebrew
  10. ↑ Memorial Book. Victims of the persecution of Jews under the Nazi tyranny in Germany 1933–1945, Federal Archives, Koblenz 1986

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ship, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Hoffenheim
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1986
Place of death Red Bank (New Jersey)