Abraham Michalski

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Abraham Julius (Jechiel) Michalski (born August 12, 1889 in Berlin ; died February 15, 1961 in Tel Aviv ) was a German rabbi and teacher of the Israelite Religious Society in Karlsruhe.

life and work

Abraham Michalski ( Hebrew יעקב אברהם יחיאל ב"ר שאול מיכלסקי), Son of the businessman Siegfried Michalski and his wife Ernestine, b. Alexander grew up in a strictly Orthodox family. He attended the religious school of Adass Jisroel and the Sophiengymnasium in Berlin , which he graduated from in 1908. This was followed by nine semesters of study a. a. in oriental languages in his hometown, where he also attended the rabbi seminar for Orthodox Judaism with David Hoffmann , Joseph Wohlgemuth and Abraham Berliner until 1912 . In 1913/1914 Michalski was enrolled at the University of Münster , where he worked on the philosophy faculty in 1915 with a thesis on the influence of theTalmud -Kommentators Rashi on the Franciscan theologian Nicholas of Lyra doctorate was.

From 1912 to 1919, Michalski looked after small communities in Westphalia as a district rabbi from Recklinghausen and moved to the same office in Lower Franconia from 1919 to 1923, where he also became director of the Israelite Teachers' Training Institute in Würzburg . During this time he rebuilt the Israelite Prepared School (Talmud Torah) in Burgpreppach .

In December 1918 he married the teacher's daughter Bella Hirschmann, b. on September 1, 1893 in Fischach .

In 1924, Abraham Michalski took over the office of rabbi of the orthodox exit congregation in Karlsruhe as the successor to the Sinai Schiffer who had crashed . There he was a counselor and pastor, preached and led the Beth Din . In addition, he was in charge of the community's religious school and the Israelite Kindergarten Association (Dr. Sinai Schiffer Foundation) . The Michalski couple lived in the front building of the Karl-Friedrich-Straße 16 synagogue .

In 1934 Michalski gave under the title W'higadta l'wincha ( Hebrew והגדת לבנך) a Passover Haggadah "based on the research system of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch ".

When on May 16, 1934, the Nazi rulers drove the SPD politician Ludwig Marum in an open truck through Karlsruhe to the Kislau concentration camp , the passing Bella Michalski received such a violent shock from those involved that the woman who was three months pregnant received one Miscarried. She remained childless.

On the night of the pogrom on November 10, 1938 at five o'clock in the morning, when the community synagogue was on fire, Dr. Michalski intervened and saved holy objects, but was immediately taken into " protective custody " and in the following days was deported with numerous Jewish men to the Dachau concentration camp . As a rabbi, he was particularly ill-treated there, since the alleged trigger of the event, Herschel Grynszpan , was also a rabbinical student. With the Gestapo ordered to leave the country immediately, he was released on December 15 and returned to Karlsruhe. When it became known that an anonymous "Baden rabbi" had reported to the Baden Observer about the conditions in the Dachau concentration camp, Michalski, who was immediately suspected, traveled to Holland at the end of 1938, where he stayed with his brother-in-law Max Hirschmann in Scheveningen . His wife took care of the move and followed suit in February 1939. The “Lift” sent via Rotterdam, a furniture transport box, the shipping of which cost 2,400 RM alone  , had initially disappeared and was confiscated in 1941 by the “Collection Management of Enemy Household Appliances” and auctioned cheaply. The private library, the Torah scrolls and all household items were lost.

Shortly before the start of the war , the couple received a certificate for the Mandate Palestine . In December 1939 the journey went on a sealed train to Marseille and on to Haifa by ship Champollion . Until about 1958 Rabbi Michalski was active in the “German” Adass Jeschurun congregation on Gnessin Street in Tel Aviv , which had barely 30 people, and where the couple lived in simple circumstances. Shortly after her husband died, the widow Bella Michalski also died on April 9, 1961. The couple's grave is in the Zikhron Meir cemetery in Bnei Brak .

In an obituary by his colleague Siegbert Neufeld , Rabbi Michalski is characterized as follows: “With the strictest fidelity to the Torah, he was tolerant of differently minded people and maintained human contact with them. He knew how to love peace, to love people and to bring them closer to the Torah. "

Works (selection)

  • Raschi's influence on Nicolaus von Lyra in the interpretation of the books Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy . Leipzig: Drugulin, 1915, 38 p. Also printed in: Zeitschrift fd Alttestamentl. Knowledge Born 35, 1915; Born 36, 1916. (Zugl. Münster, Phil. Diss., 1916)
  • Israel's battle cry . Berlin: Lamm, 1916, 29 p. (= Lamm's Jüdische Feldbücherei ; 9 )
  • Maimonides: Sketch for the more mature youth / by A. Michalski . Hamburg: Verl. Hamburger Rundschau, 1936, 30 pp.
  • Limudei Avraham: Ra'ayonot l'Mishnayot . Vol. 1 (1947), Vol. 2 (1961, posthumous), Jerusalem; see. hebrewbooks.org

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 15. Av 5649
  2. ↑ Birth certificate StA Berlin VIII No. 1694/1889 .
  3. ^ Karlsruhe: Rabbi Dr. Michalski 50 years old . In: Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt Berlin , vol. 62, 1939, p. 8
  4. ↑ Abraham Michalski: Curriculum Vitae . In: Raschi's influence on Nicolaus von Lyra […] . Phil. Diss., Leipzig 1915, final sheet.
  5. ↑ cf. Annual report Rabbi Seminar Berlin 1911/1912, Bln. 1913
  6. ↑ alemannia-judaica.org
  7. ↑ cf. Karlsruhe City Archives, 1 / AEST 36
  8. ↑ cf. Leon Meyer in: Jews in Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe: Badenia, 1990, p. 596f.
  9. ↑ Statement in: GLA Karlsruhe 480 / EK 24440
  10. ↑ cf. Information in GLA Karlsruhe 480 / EK 966
  11. ↑ GLA Karlsruhe / EK 24440
  12. ↑ cf. Hans Chanoch Meyer (ed.): From the history and life of the Jews in Westphalia. A collective font . Frankfurt / M. 1963
personal data
SURNAME Michalski, Abraham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michalski, Ya'akov Avram Yechi'el; Michalski, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rabbis of the New Orthodoxy
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1961
Place of death Tel Aviv