Israelite Theological School

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt served between 1893 and 1938 in Vienna for the training of rabbis , religious teachers and the cultivation of the science of Judaism . It was approved by the state and received modest state funding. In the 45 years of its existence, the university had 324 male students; women were not admitted. The university was constantly in the tension of anti-Semitism in Austria, it was closed and dissolved after the annexation of Austria in 1938.

history

In 1860 Rabbi Adolf Jellinek founded a Beth Ha-Midrash (House of Learning) in Vienna. It was under the direction of the lecturers Meit Friedmann and Isaak Hirsch Weiss and was intended to educate the rabbinate candidates who were also studying philology at the University of Vienna . Since the institute was inadequately funded, it could not offer a full training program. Some of the lectures were also public.

The proposal for the establishment of the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt came from the Viennese Judaism by Rabbi Moritz Güdemann , from the entrepreneurs Wilhelm von Gutmann and David von Gutmann and was supported by the bankers Albert von Rothschild and Moritz von Königswarter . Further support came from scholars such as Adolf Jellinek , Joshua Heschel Schorr and Abraham Epstein .

The university was supported by the Jewish religious communities from Vienna, Prague and Lemberg and by the Bohemian rural Jews from the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary. A modest subsidy came from the state, and Emperor Franz Joseph noted with satisfaction that the students no longer had to go abroad.

The organization of the university was based on the model of the Jewish Theological Seminary founded in Wroclaw in 1854 . The school was headed by a board of trustees made up of fifteen people, led by a president. The first presidents of the university were the banker Moritz von Königswarter , after his death the entrepreneur Moritz Karpeles and then the brewer Moritz Edler von Kuffner .

The seat of the university was in Vienna at Tempelgasse 3. It was founded on October 15, 1893. It had a threefold task:

  • Training of rabbis and preachers
  • Training of religious teachers
  • Care of the science of Judaism

The university teachers from 1893 onwards were Adolf Schwarz , professor of Talmud , halachic literature and homiletics as rector, and professors Meir Friedmann for midrash , David Heinrich Müller for exegesis , grammar and religious philosophy, Adolf Büchler for history and lecturers for pedagogy, German, Polish and Czech. Among the teachers who were later employed were Samuel Krauss and Victor Aptowitzer. In 1902, 26 students studied for the rabbi exam and eleven for the religion teacher exam.

The college published a yearbook with an annual report and an academic essay. It stood in the area of ​​tension between conservative Judaism , according to which the faith of research had to set limits, and liberal Judaism .

The Vienna Chief Rabbi Zwi Perez Chajes was only able to partially overcome the financial crisis of the post-war period by addressing philanthropists in the USA. The college was banned in 1938 and the library was the victim of art theft .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Landesmann: The history of training , 2009, p. 151
  2. ↑ Peter Landesmann: The history of training , 2009, p. 153
  3. ↑ Peter Landesmann: The history of training , 2009, p. 151
  4. ↑ opening of Israel (itisch) -theol (ogischen) establishment in Vienna . In: Joseph Samuel Bloch : Dr. Bloch's Austrian weekly . No. 42.1893 (Xth year), October 20, 1893, ZDB -ID 2177107-8 . Vienna 1893, pp. 818–822. - Full text online .
  5. ↑ Victor Aptowitzer, see English Wikipedia en: Avigdor Aptowitzer