Jacob Hamburger

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Jacob Hamburger (born November 10, 1826 in Loslau , Pleß district , Upper Silesia ; died November 23 (according to other sources on November 10 or October 24, 1911 in Neustrelitz , Mecklenburg-Strelitz ) was a German liberal rabbi , Biblical, Midrash and Talmud scholar . He is the sole author and editor of one of the first explicitly Jewish encyclopedias. With his Realencyclopadie des Judentums he established a reference work tradition for Judaism, which found an important continuation with the German, later English-language Encyclopaedia Judaica .

Life

Jacob Hamburger received his first training from his father David, a tavern from Ratibor . He attended Talmudic Academies ( Yeshivot ) in Hotzenplotz , Pressburg and Nikolsburg . He received the title Morenu from Samson Raphael Hirsch and the senior lawyers in Nikolsburg. Throughout his life he was proud to have acquired his Talmudic knowledge in Moravian yeshivot. In 1874 he wrote that "I am one of the older candidates who did not draw their Jewish knowledge from seminars, but from the source itself."

As listeners without leaving certificate, he enrolled in 1847 at the University of Breslau Extra ordinem . On September 20, 1850, he received the Abitur at the grammar school in Lubań (Lauban), Lower Silesia. On February 7, 1851, he continued his studies at the universities in Berlin and Leipzig and completed it on October 21, 1852 with a doctorate on De Chaldaica versione, quam Onkelosianam vocamus . From January 21, 1852 he worked for seven years as a rabbi in Neustadt b. Tiller ( Poznan Province ). From 1855 to 1857 he was also responsible for tiller .

Around 1857, probably in Neustadt, he married Bertha Gensler, with whom he later had seven children. At least two daughters were victims of the Shoah .

Around Passover 1859, Hamburg became a rabbi in Strelitz , where he was appointed chief and regional rabbi in the then Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . In Mecklenburg-Strelitz (initially based in Altstrelitz, later in Neustrelitz) he worked as a state rabbi until the end of his life. He was the last state rabbi in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. After his death the office remained vacant.

In 1858, Hamburger was among the signatories of the submission to the Vatican in the Mortara affair .

In 1865 Hamburger got into a dispute with the community council about his place of residence. He only had one room in Altstrelitz and moved to Neustrelitz, where his oldest daughters opened a boarding school for girls in 1878. The board of directors then refused to pay him his salary. In 1881 he was involved in five lawsuits. Two rabbis submitted an opinion as to whether a rabbi could live half a mile away from his wife.

The Strelitz lexicographer and linguist Daniel Sanders was one of the Friends of Hamburgers .

Jacob Hamburger's tombstone is one of the few remaining from the destroyed Jewish cemetery in Altstrelitz , along with Daniel Sanders' . On November 9, 2011, a memorial plaque for Jacob Hamburger was inaugurated near the synagogue memorial stone in Altstrelitz.

Real Encyclopedia of Judaism

Hamburgers first work was his doctoral thesis, published in Leipzig in 1852, in which he dealt with an Aramaic translation of the Torah . Five years later he presented his encyclopedic early writing Geist der Hagada , which represents Hamburger's early stage in a lexicographical work that spanned four decades. This first encyclopedic work by Hamburgers in the mid-1850s was initially limited to the Aggada , the non-legal content of ancient rabbinical literature . According to the foreword of this first volume dealing with the letter A on 140 pages, he originally planned a “Real Encyclopedia of the Hagada” (= today: Aggada); but with this first volume he gave up this restriction to the Aggada. Hamburger received public applause for these studies from Zacharias Frankel and Ludwig Philippson . Thirteen years later, Hamburger published an encyclopedia that dealt with the (Jewish) Bible (with the five books of Moses and the Prophets) in over a thousand lemmas from AZ. Thirteen years later he added to this first volume (section I.) with the "Biblical Articles" a second with over 1300 pages, in which the areas " Talmud and Midrash " as well as Apocrypha , the writings of Philons of Alexandria and Flavius ​​Josephus were added.

For the second improved, but not increased edition of the sections I and II as well as the publication of the supplement volumes (1896/97) Hamburger decided to rename the entire work in "Real-Encyclopadie des Judentums" (1896/97). In the prospectus for this only and last new edition, he titled his work as "Konversations-Lexikon des Judentums", in which one

"Obtaining clear and quick information about objects from history, the doctrines and laws of ethics, cult, dogmatics and law in Judaism is an urgent, long-recognized need. Friends and supporters of science, men who have managed to preserve their hearts and minds for the history and literature of our ancestors, may not be left behind in purchasing this charitable work. (...) This work is not just a compendium of the history and science of Judaism for scholars, but also an instructive reference book for lay people, Jews and non-Jews who want and seek an objective presentation of the subjects of Judaism that are publicly discussed. "

- Jacob Hamburger : Real-Encyclopadie des Judentums (1897): Prospectus for the 2nd edition, which is only included in the copies of the rare 2nd edition.

The contemporary articles dealing with Judaism beyond the Bible, Talmud and Midrash can be found predominantly in the (six-part) supplements. It can therefore be assumed that Hamburger made this title change in the final phase in the mid-1890s in order to appeal to a larger readership. In addition to commercial interests, he was undoubtedly interested in reading groups for whom the Bible, the Talmud and the Midrash were no longer at the center of their daily religious practice. With this editorial and lexicographical work by the regional rabbi in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the first German-language encyclopedia on Judaism was created, which was also of considerable importance for worldwide reception, since German was a lingua franca among scholars at the time.

While Hamburger was hardly received in the German Empire until his death, he is quite well known in the Anglo-Saxon region. However, his work has remained untranslated. In the yearbook of the Central Conference of American Rabbis ("Year Book of the Central Conference of American Rabbis") (1908), on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Jacob Hamburger was described as one of the "most gifted workers in the field of Jewish literature". This lifetime achievement, based on his lexicographical achievements, is all the more to be appreciated as no co-authors of his 3000 articles of the Real Encyclopedia, which are assembled on almost 4000 pages, are known.

Works

literature

  • Chaim David Lippe: Bibliographical lexicon of the entire Jewish literature of the present, and address indicator. A lexically ordered scheme with addresses of rabbis, preachers, teachers, cantors, supporters of Jewish literature in the old and new world, together with biblio-graphical details of all writings and magazines published by contemporary Jewish authors, especially those relating to Jewish literature . Vienna 1879/81, p. 168.
  • Nachum Sokolow : Sēfer zikkārōn le-sofere Yisrael ha-chajjim ittanu kaj-jom: (= Russian Slovar evrejskich pisatelej). (Sepher Zykaron, bio-bibliographical lexicon containing alphabetically ordered biographies and autobiographies of contemporary Jewish writers), Varšava: (author), 1889, p. 29.
  • NN: On the 70th birthday of the regional rabbi . In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 47 (November 20, 1896), p. 14 (= Der Gemeindebote, p. 2).
  • NN: Mecklenburg-Strelitzsche Landeszeitung, No. 69, 1897. (About the friendship with Daniel Sanders )
  • Meyer Kayserling : The Jewish literature of Moses Mendelssohn up to the present. In: Jakob Winter and August Wünsche (eds.): The Jewish literature since the end of the canon. Volume III, p. 771, separate print: Verlag von M. Poppelauer, Berlin 1896, p. 51 ( digitized in the Freimann collection ).
  • Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Volume II, Czernowitz 1927, p. 601 f.
  • Klaus Arlt (author), Constantin Beyer (illustrator): Evidence of Jewish culture. Memorial sites in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. Berlin 1992, ISBN 978-3350007806 , p. 42.
  • Irene Diekmann (Ed.): Guide through the Jewish Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Potsdam 1998, pp. 56-59.
  • Abraham Wein (Ed.): PK Poznań-Pomerania (= Pinqās ha-Qehīllōth-Pōlīn. ) Volume VI: Districts of Poznań and Pomerania, Gdańsk (Danzig). Jerusalem 1999, p. 102.
  • Entry HAMBURGER, Jacob, 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, ISBN 3-598-24871-7 , No. 949, p. 409.
  • Alexander Carlebach: Hamburger, Jacob. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . (2nd edition 2007), Vol. 9, p. 298.
  • Martin Grahl: Jacob Hamburger, state rabbi of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In: Mecklenburgia sacra. Yearbook for Mecklenburg Church History. 18.2017, pp. 64–84.
  • Michael Buddrus , Sigrid Fritzlar: Jews in Mecklenburg. 1845 - 1945. Paths and fates. A memorial book. Volume 1. Ed .: Institute for Contemporary History Munich - Berlin / State Center for Civic Education Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schwerin 2019, ISBN 978-3-9816439-9-2 , p. 177.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry HAMBURGER, Jacob, 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. 0661, p. 409
  2. ↑ Jacob Hamburg in: juden-in-mecklenburg.de. Reference is made here to his death certificate.
  3. ↑ Stadtarchiv Emden Decimal Register IV Dc No. 4, Bl. 25, Hamburg's application on March 16, 1874, quoted from: Carsten L. Wilke: Den Talmud and the Kant. Rabbi training on the threshold to modernity. Netiva Volume 4, Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2003, ISBN 978-3-487-11950-2 , p. 689.
  4. ^ Announcement of taking office in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums . An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson , XVI. Year, No. 4, Leipzig 1852, p. 41 ( digitized with Compact Memory ) and No. 7, pp. 74f. ( Digitized ibid. ).
  5. ↑ Acknowledging description of his work there in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums . An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson, 19th year, No. 32, Leipzig 1855, p. 410 f. ( Digital version with compact memory )
  6. ↑ Jacob Hamburg in: juden-in-mecklenburg.de.
  7. ^ Report on change in: Notification of taking office in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums . An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson, 23rd year, No. 18, Leipzig 1859, p. 262 ( digitized with Compact Memory )
  8. ^ LHA Schwerin, inventory "Judenangelektiven Mecklenburg-Strelitz", packages 68 and 69.
  9. ↑ From the history of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Philippson (ed.): Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. 22nd year, No. 43, Leipzig October 18, 1858, p. 586.
  11. ↑ Berlin, Centrum Judaicum - Synagogue Foundation, Archive (CJA), 75 A Str 3 No. 23.
  12. ↑ Ulrike Haß-Zumkehr: Enlightened German Studies in the 19th Century. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1995, ISBN 3-11-014331-3 , p. 65.
  13. ↑ Jürgen Borchert and Detlef Klose: What remained ... Jewish traces in Mecklenburg. Berlin 1994, pp. 73f.
  14. ↑ Daniel Sanders' gravestone is also preserved.
  15. ^ City press archive.
  16. ↑ See: Ludwig Philippson (ed.): Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums . An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. 22nd year, No. 27, Leipzig 1858, pp. 371 - 374 ( digital version with Compact Memory ).
personal data
SURNAME Hamburger, Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Loslau , Pleß district , Upper Silesia
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1911
Place of death Neustrelitz ( Mecklenburg-Strelitz )