Alexander Kisch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Kisch ( October 5, 1848 in Prague - December 8, 1917 there ) was a Bohemian rabbi and an important pulpit speaker.

Live and act

Kisch was the son of the private school director Josef Enoch Kisch from Prague (1804–1874). His brother was the balneologist Enoch Heinrich Kisch .

Alexander Kisch entered the grammar school department of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Wroclaw in 1863 at the age of less than 15, supported by a scholarship from the Prague Jewish religious community . He studied at the University of Breslau and the University of Tübingen , where he was awarded a Dr. phil. doctorate, and in Paris, where he was also tutor in the house of Baron Horace Günzburg . In 1874 he got his first rabbinical position in Brüx / Bohemia . In 1877 he was appointed as the successor to Moritz Levin as the second rabbi of the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zurich and published the Neue Israelitische Zeitung from 1878 to 1880 . From 1881 to 1886 he was a rabbi in Jungbunzlau / Bohemia and from 1882 to 1884 he published the Israelitischer Lehrerbot there .

On April 1, 1886, he was appointed rabbi of the Maisel Synagogue in his hometown of Prague. He held this office until his death.

In 1900 he became the first rabbi to become a state teacher of religion at the German Stefans-Gymnasium in Prague, and in 1909 he became inspector of religious education. Kisch organized the Jewish military pastoral care in Austria in times of peace. He was an important speaker in the pulpit.

Sensational meeting with Emperor Franz Joseph I.

An outstanding event in Alexander Kisch's life was an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1899, which took place on the occasion of an award for his 25 years as a field rabbi in the Austro-Hungarian Army . Shortly before, as a result of a ritual murder accusation that occurred in the Bohemian town of Polná , serious riots against the Jewish population had broken out. During his audience, Kisch brought up these incidents. The emperor uttered the historical sentence: "I am very indignant about this rawness".

This rejection by the emperor of anti-Semitism , which the emperor expressly permitted to be published at Kisch's request, caused a tremendous sensation in the press of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and was an extensively discussed topic for weeks. This event also found a strong echo in the world press.

family

With his wife Charlotte, b. Pollatschek / Polatschek, he raised four children: the sons Kurt Kisch , publisher, Guido Kisch , professor of law, Bruno Kisch , professor of medicine, and the daughter Marie Ruth (Therese) [Mizzi] Kisch-Kirchenberger, lawyer.

Publications (selection)

  • Pope Gregory IX article of indictment against the Talmud and its defense by Rabbi Fechiel ben Josef and Rabbi Juda ben David before Louis the Saint in Paris , Leipzig 1874
  • Dinner speech at the banquet held in honor of the synagogue inauguration in St. Gallen on September 22, 1881 , Trüb, Zurich 1881
  • The Jewish city of Prague during the Battle of the White Mountains , J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt a. M. o. J. (approx. 1892)
  • Attempt at a new explanation of the Gothic fragments contained in the Alcuin manuscript of the Imperial and Royal Court Library in Vienna , Prague 1902

literature

  • Kish Alexander. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965, p. 347 f. (Direct links on p. 347 , p. 348 ).
  • Guido Kisch : Alexander Kisch 1848–1917. A sketch of his life and work, at the same time a contribution to the history of the Jews in Prague. Private print, Halle-Saale 1934.
  • Wilhelm Güde : Rabbi Dr. Alexander Kisch as the kk Landwehr rabbi. At the same time, a small contribution about the beginnings of Jewish military pastoral care in Austria-Hungary. In: Michael Berger, Gideon Römer-Hillebrecht (ed.): Jewish soldiers - Jewish resistance in Germany and France. Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2012, pp. 180–196.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruth Heinrichs: The short era of Rabbi Alexander Kisch , in: Annette Brunschwig, Ruth Heinrichs, Karin Huser: History of the Jews in the Canton of Zurich: from the beginnings to the present day , Orell Füssli, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-280- 06001-X , pp. 228-231
  2. ↑ a b c Kisch Alexander. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965, p. 347 f. (Direct links on p. 347 , p. 348 ).
  3. ↑ Kurt Krolop : National and cultural attribution problems with authors from the Bohemian countries in the 20th century , in: Steffen Höhne, Ludger Udolph (ed.): German - Czech - Bohemian: cultural integration and disintegration in the 20th century , Böhlau, Cologne a . a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20493-8 , p. 119
  4. ↑ The "Hilsner" 1899 . ( Memento of September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) From: Radio Prague: Chapters from Czech history, April 17, 1999.
  5. ↑ Alan Dundes : The blood libel legend: a casebook in anti-semitic folklore , Univ. of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis. u. a. 1991, p. 313 f .; limited preview in Google Book search
  6. ^ Ernest A. Rappaport: Anti-Judaism: a Psychohistory , Perspective Press, Chicago 1975, p. 100
personal data
SURNAME Kisch, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian-Austrian rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1917
Place of death Prague