David Kaufmann

David Kaufmann

David Kaufmann , Hebrew דוד קויפמן, (born June 7, 1852 in Kojetein , Austrian Empire ; died July 6, 1899 in Karlsbad , Austria-Hungary ) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish scientist teaching in Budapest with a broad field of historical and philosophical research. He was best known for the correspondence network of Jewish scholars that he set up.

Life

From 1861 to 1867 Kaufmann attended grammar school in Kremsier . There he studied the Bible and Talmud with Jakob Brüll , the rabbi of Kojetein, and with his son Nehemiah.

From 1867 he attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau and studied at the same time at the University of Breslau . In the summer of 1875 he completed his habilitation at the University of Leipzig . On January 29, 1877 he was ordained a rabbi. He did not accept the offer of a professorship at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Cincinnati . Instead he took over a chair for history, philosophy of religion and homiletics at the newly founded Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest . He taught there until his death in 1899. He gave the lessons in Greek and German at the Budapest elementary school in the Hungarian language he had quickly learned.

As a librarian at the seminary, he acquired the great library of Lelio Della Torre of Padua . This made the seminary library one of the richest European collections of Hebrew literature. Kaufmann was very successful as a teacher; his relationship with the students was that of a friendly advisor. He conducted a lively correspondence with the most important Jewish scholars (from this arose the network known as the “Kaufmanns Intelligence Service”) and important researchers in other disciplines. He was a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Madrid and a member of the Budapest Alliance Israélite Universelle .

Works

Kaufmann's publications are varied; the bibliography of his studies (created by Markus Brann for the memorial book in memory of David Kaufmann , ed. M. Brann and Franz Rosenthal , Breslau 1900) comprises 546 titles from all areas of Jewish studies. His first and most important works include the studies of the philosophy of religion, including:

• The theology of Bachja ibn Pakuda , author of the חובות הלבבות , a competition essay that he wrote as a student at the seminary (in reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences , Vienna 1874)
• History of the theory of attributes in the Jewish philosophy of religion of the Middle Ages from Saadia to Maimuni (Gotha 1877–78), his main work. It dealt with important aspects of the Jewish and Arab religious philosophy of the Middle Ages .
• Al-Batlajusi's traces in the Jewish philosophy of religion. In addition to an edition of Hebr. Translation of His Pictorial Circles (Budapest 1880; also in Hungarian)
• The senses. Contributions to the history of physiology and psychology in the Middle Ages. From Hebrew and Arabic sources (Budapest 1884; also in Hungarian)
• Publication of the Minḥat Ḳena'ot by Jehiel ben Samuel Pisa (Berlin 1898, part of the Meḳiẓe Nirdamim collection)
• Studies on Salomon ibn Gabirol (Budapest 1899; also in Hungarian)
• a large number of articles in various journals, including Der Führer Maimuni's in der Weltliteratur (reprint from the archive for the history of philosophy , ed. L. Stein, 11/3).

Contributions to the history of Judaism

Kaufmann's most important monographs are:

• The last expulsion of the Jews from Vienna, their prehistory (1625-70) and their victims (Vienna 1889; also in Hungarian) digitized
• On the history of Jewish families: Samson Wertheimer, the Oberhoffactor and regional rabbi, 1658-1724, and his children (Vienna 1888) digitized
• Documents from the life of Samson Wertheimer (Budapest 1891; also in Hungarian)
• The Families of Prague based on the epitaphs of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, compiled by Simon Hock, edited from his estate, with annotations and biographical introduction by Prof. Dr. D. Kaufmann (Hebrew title page, Pressburg 1892)
• On the history of Jewish families: I., R. Jair Chajjim Bacharach, 1638-1702, and his ancestors (Trier 1894)
• Dr. Israel Conegliano and his services to the Republic of Venice until after the Peace of Carlowitz (Budapest 1895; also in Hungarian)
• The storming of Oven and its history according to Isaak Schulhof's report [Megillat Oven], 1650-1732; Edited and introduced biographically (Trier 1895)
• From Heinrich Heine's ancestral hall (Breslau 1896)
• The Memoirs of the Glückel von Hameln (Frankfurt / Main 1896, edition of the original West Yiddish text)
• The Chronicle of Achimaaz from Oria (reprint from the monthly 1896).

To Jewish art

Kaufmann was the first to deal with the art history of the synagogue. The following works fall into this area:

• On the history of art in the synagogues (Vienna 1897)
• On the history of Jewish manuscript illustration (contribution to the special edition of The Haggada of Sarajewo , ed. DH Müller and I. v. Schlossar, Vienna 1898)
• Sens et Origines des Symboles Tumulaires de l'Ancien Testament dans l'Art Chrétien Primitif ( REJ xiv. 33, 217).

Polemical writings

His polemical writings include:

• A word in confidence to the court preacher Stöcker von Eine, whose name nothing to the matter Thut (Berlin 1880)
• Paul de Lagarde's Jüdische Gelehrsamkeit (Leipzig 1887), a defense of his friend and teacher Leopold Zunz
• How We Raise the Religious Sense of Our Girls and Women (Trier 1893)
• Introduction to S. Heller's The Real Hebrew Melodies (Trier 1893)

Kaufmann's library

Kaufmann was also an active member of Meḳiẓe Nirdamim , a society for the publication of ancient Hebrew manuscripts. He owned a large library with numerous valuable manuscripts, incunabula and first editions. The Marco Mortara Library, which he acquired , formed its core collection.

literature

• Adolf Brüll :  businessman, David . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 81-84.
• Mirjam Thulin, Kaufmanns Intelligence Service: A Jewish Scholar Network in the 19th Century, Göttingen [u. a.]: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012
• Kaufmann, David. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 13: Jaco-Kerr. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich, 2005, ISBN 3-598-22693-4 , pp. 306-314.
• F. Rosenthal, biography and bibliography. In: M. Brann and F. Rosenthal (eds.): Gedenkbuch ... David Kaufmann (1900). i-lxxxvii.
• M. Klein, in: M. Brann and F. Rosenthal (eds.), Gedenkbuch ... David Kaufmann (1900), 667-74
• Samuel Krauss , David Kaufmann , Berlin 1902
• H. Bloch, in: Abendblatt of the Pester Lloyd , July 10, 1899
• DH Müller, in: Yearbook of the Association for Jewish History and Literature , 3, Berlin 1900, 196–206
• L. Blau , in: Annual Report of the State Rabbinical School , 1900.
• M. Brann, in: D. Kaufmann, Gesammelte Schriften (1908), ix-xii
• R. Brainin , in: Sefer ha-Shanah, 1 (1900), 186-96.
• SA Horodezky, in: Ha-Goren, 2 (1900), 119-20
• Annual report of the National Rabbinical School in Budapest, 22 (1899)
• RMvai Nagy Lexikona, 11, 365 (1914);
• Magyar Zsid Lexicon (1929), 456;
• A. Scheiber , The Kaufmann Haggadah (1957)
• S. Loewinger / A. Scheiber (Eds.): Genizah Publications in Memory of Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann, 1 (1949)

Web links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for David Kaufmann , by Isidore Singer and Max Weisz
• Digital copies of the works of David Kaufmann in the Judaica Collection in Frankfurt

• David Kaufmann and his collection of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts in the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Digitized book ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.