Ahron Daum
Ahron Daum (born January 6, 1951 in Bnei Brak , Israel ; died June 27, 2018 in Antwerp ) was an Israeli-born modern Orthodox rabbi , teacher, author and community rabbi in Frankfurt am Main, among others .
Personal life and education
Ahron Daum was born in Bnei Brak in 1951 into a religious Ashkenazi family. His father, Shmuel Daum, was a teacher and writer and came from a well-known rabbinical family from Poland and Bohemia . His mother, Rivka Gina Daum, came from a merchant family from Sopron . He has three younger brothers.
Ahron Daum's religious training began at the age of 13 in the Lithuanian Hasidic "Ruzhin" yeshiva in Bnei Brak. At the age of 14 he left Israel for the United Kingdom , where he continued his studies at the yeshiva "Ha-Rama", but later switched to the Zionist yeshiva "Etz Chaim" in Montreux . In 1975, after graduating from high school in Switzerland, he went to Jews' College, University of London , where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Jewish studies (with honors). From 1978 on, he attended Rabbi Isaac Elchanan's Theological Seminary (RIETS '82) at Yeshiva University , New York , where he earned a Masters Degree in Biblical Studies (with honors) and received his rabbinical ordination . The offer to continue his studies in order to gain the title of Dayan , he turned down and returned to Europe. There he married Francine Frenkel, with whom he has three daughters. Daum spoke and written Hebrew , German, English, French, Dutch and Yiddish and had passive knowledge of Aramaic and Latin.
Rabbinical career
In 1982 Ahron Daum became a community rabbi in Biel (Switzerland). He left his office in 1986 to become a doctoral candidate at the Christian-Jewish Institute in Lucerne , which was affiliated to the Theological Faculty of the University of Lucerne . In 1987 he assumed the office of sole rabbi of the Jewish community in Frankfurt am Main , at that time the largest Jewish community in what was then West Germany with around 6,000–7,000 members .
During his tenure there was a large influx of Russian Jewish immigrants who moved to Germany from the former Soviet Union. Daum was committed to their integration into the community. He also organizes Jewish culture days for klezmer music . He initiated the renovation of the Mikve community according to the strict rules of the Halacha . Together with his father, Shmuel Daum, he regularly organized 'Kabbalat Shabbat' minyanim for the youth in the Baumweg Synagogue and was still the Av (President) of the Beth Dins of Frankfurt during his tenure. As this he was engaged in Giyurim , answering questions regarding Kashrut , Dinei Torah and religious divorces (Gittin).
In 1993 he resigned from the post of municipal rabbi for family reasons and moved to Antwerp, where most of his family already lived. There he began to teach Judaism in the state school system and in Jewish day schools. In 1995 he accepted a position as a lecturer in Jewish law at the Faculty of Comparative Religious Studies at the University of Antwerp . In recognition of his teaching activities there and his written works on Halacha , the faculty awarded him an honorary professorship in Jewish law.
Since 2001, he and his wife have carried out a number of public relations projects for Baale Teschuva, non-Jews interested in Jewish studies, and prospective Geerim .
Work and publications
Ahron Daum published on a variety of topics in Jewish Studies. During his time in Switzerland, he worked as a freelancer for the Jewish German-Swiss weekly newspaper “ Jüdische Rundschau ” with regular publications of articles on Halacha. During his tenure as sole community rabbi in Frankfurt am Main , he regularly wrote articles for “ Die Jüdische Allgemeine ” and the bimonthly magazine “Die Gemeinde”. Since 2010 he has been writing a monthly column for “Joods Actueel”, the most widely distributed Jewish publication in Belgium . In these columns he writes on the entire spectrum of Jewish studies, such as a series on the history of Judaism.
Daum published two books. His first book "Halacha aktuell" is a two-volume work, written in German, which deals with halachic and current issues as they appear in halachic literature and in particular in the so-called " response literature ". Some of the articles in this book were written in rabbinical Hebrew and later published separately under the title "Iyunim b'Halacha". His second book, “The Jewish Holidays in the View of Tradition” is a two-volume anthology that combines halachic articles, sermons, literary references, homiletic thoughts, folklore and funny stories about the Jewish holidays and Shabbat .
Fonts
- Halacha current. Jewish religious laws and customs in modern everyday life. Discussions, exegeses, findings and decisions based on authentic rabbinical sources , 2 volumes. Haag and Herchen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-89228-672-8 (Hebrew title: Ijjûnîm bahalākāh ).
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The Holidays of Israel. The Jewish Holidays from the perspective of tradition , two volumes. Haag and Herchen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main
- Vol. 1: 1993, ISBN 3-86137-001-8 .
- Vol. 2: 1994, ISBN 3-86137-069-7 .
- The role of the rabbi in Germany today . In: Julius Carlebach (Ed.): The Ashkenazi Rabbinate. Studies of Faith and Fate . Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-926893-52-4 , pp. 219-224.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Obituary (p. 46) on jg-ffm.de, December 2018, accessed on July 8, 2019 (.pdf)
- ↑ a b c d e Diplomas and certificates. Best Jewish Studies, accessed November 27, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c Letters of Accommodation and Approbation in Hebrew and European Languages (PDF; 3.7 MB) Best Jewish Studies. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Daum, Ahron |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Israeli rabbi of Orthodox Judaism, teacher, author and sole community rabbi in Frankfurt am Main |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bnei Brak , Israel |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 27, 2018 |
| Place of death | Antwerp |