Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach

Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach (born 1808 in Neuwied , Duchy of Nassau ; died September 30, 1872 in Halberstadt , Province of Saxony ) was a German rabbi .

Live and act

Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach was the son of the Bonn rabbi Abraham Auerbach and Esther-Rebekka Oppenheim. He learned for five years at Löb Carlburg in Krefeld , then for several years at Koppel Bamberger in Worms . In 1828 he was supported by two teachers ordained . From 1831 to 1834 he studied at the universities in Bonn and Marburg . On July 28, 1834, he received his doctorate from the University of Giessen . In the same year he passed the rabbinate exam with Prelate Dr. Koehler in Darmstadt . His student days were marked by hard work and bitter poverty.

Even as a rabbinical candidate he gave sermons and was one of the first Orthodox preachers in Germany. In Hanau he was elected rabbi, but resigned after a short time to become regional rabbi in Darmstadt on January 2, 1835 .

His New Orthodox textbook published in 1839 failed. The Trier rabbi refused to give her license to practice medicine. From 1840 he came into conflict with the community board in Darmstadt, while the 98 rural communities supported him. In 1844 Auerbach signed the appeal against the resolutions of the first German rabbinical assembly .

In 1863 he became a rabbi in Halberstadt.

He was married to Lea Frenkel (1814-1884), daughter of the district director Eisemann Frenkel from Witzenhausen . His son Siegmund Selig Aviesri Auerbach (1840-1901), his grandson Isak Auerbach (1870-1932) and his great-grandson Zwi Benjamin Auerbach (1901-1973) were his successors as rabbis in Halberstadt.

Publications (selection)

• Ceremonial sermons, along with archaeological remarks. Marburg 1834.
• Selection of worship lectures held in the Israeli church in Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1837.
• Tōrath'Ämäth. Textbook of the Israelite religion edited from the sources. For use in the upper classes of religious schools, with very important explanatory notes for parents, teachers, and future theologians. Approved by the Grand Duke. Hessian rabbis in Bingen, Friedberg, Mainz, Michelstadt, Offenbach, Worms, from the Kgl. Preuss. Isr. Consistorien zu Bonn and Crefeld and from five and thirty other Israelite clergy abroad. Darmstadt 1839, new edition: Giessen 1893.
• Contribution to the rabbinical reports against the Frankfurt Reform Association. 1844.
• Letter to the venerable senior lawyer and chief rabbi Salomon Löb Rapoport in Prague. In: Samuel Enoch (ed.): The faithful Zion Guardian. Organ to safeguard the interests of Orthodox Judaism. Altona 1845, pp. 5 f., 14.
• History of the Israelite community of Halberstadt (from the beginning to 1844). Halberstadt 1866.
• Berith Abraham, or the circumcision ceremony and the prayers and chants that take place. Translated into German and provided with a detailed literary-historical introduction. Frankfurt am Main 1869; 2nd edition 1880.

Literature (selection)

• Julius Fürst : Bibliotheca Judaica. Bibliographical handbook of the entire Jewish literature including the writings on Jews and Judaism and a history of the Jewish bibliography. Volume 1. Engelmann, Leipzig 1849; photomech. Reprint Hildesheim and New York 1960, p. 72.
• Moritz Steinschneider : Catalogus librorum Hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, jussu curatorum digessit et notis instruxit. Berlin 1852–1861, Volume II, p. 761.
• Entry AUERBACH, Benjamin-Hirsch, Dr. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (editors), edited by Carsten Wilke : Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781–1871. K G Saur, Munich 2004, No. 0071, p. 156ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carsten Wilke: The Talmud and the Kant. Rabbi training on the threshold of modernity. Hildesheim and New York 2003, p. 423.