Joseph Abraham Friedländer

Joseph Abraham Friedländer (born 1753 in Kolin , Bohemia ; died on November 26, 1852 in Brilon , Sauerland , Province of Westphalia ) was a German land rabbi for the Duchy of Westphalia and the Principality of Wittgenstein and a Jewish reformer .

Joseph Abraham Friedländer

Live and act

Joseph Friedländer was the son of Abraham Friedländer and nephew of David Friedländer .

Friedländer studied at the yeshivot of Chief Rabbi Ezekiel Landau in Prague and Pressburg . Unlike his teachers, he was a supporter of the Jewish Enlightenment . Important impulses came from his uncle David Friedländer , who belonged to the circle around Moses Mendelssohn in Berlin . He is said to have received a rabbinical diploma as early as 1771 .

Friedländer came to the Duchy of Westphalia at a young age, where he initially worked as a slaughterer in Padberg , from 1781 as a teacher and from 1783 as a land clerk and adviser in the "theological subject" for rural Jews. Around 1815 he worked as an official clerk for Johann Suibert Seibertz . In that year his escort (i.e. the right of residence) was moved from Padberg to Brilon. There he was employed as a teacher on August 11, 1817 after a previous examination. He worked as a vice-rabbi under Rabbi Hirsch Cohen.

The head of the Jewish community in the Sauerland, Levi Lazar Hellwitz, supported Friedländer's reform ideas. Like Alexander Haindorf in Münster, he relied on extensive assimilation . He believed that adhering to a traditional way of life and worship would lead to segregation. The aim was to free Judaism from the widespread prejudices and to place it in a peaceful coexistence with the Christian brothers.

After Hirsch Cohen's death, Friedländer was elected as his successor. On April 26, 1833 Friedländer was introduced as a land rabbi in Brilon in the presence of the mayor and the district administrator as well as numerous foreign rabbis, among them Benedikt Levi from Gießen , Rabbi Hellwitz from Soest , and Rabbi Moses Gosen from Marburg .

In the period that followed, Friedländer made major changes to the forms of worship in the Brilon synagogue. Hebrew withdrew in favor of German. German-language choir singing, organ playing and a Sabbath sermon held in German were introduced. A celebration for young people based on confirmation was also introduced. Some other communities, such as the one in Arnsberg, have adopted the reforms. When he also declared various Jewish holidays to be optional, there were protests, especially by Orthodox Jews, at the Arnsberg district government. Although the regional rabbi from Münster Abraham Sutro gave a conservative opinion, Friedländer stuck to his reform course.

His son Abraham Friedländer was head of the state Jewry in the Duchy of Westphalia and his grandson Salomon Friedländer represented reform Jewish views similar to his.

Fonts

• Šoräš Yōsef, Responsen on the abolition of the second festival days. Hanover and Brilon 1833, second edition expanded by an exchange of letters with A. Chorin, Hanover 1835.
• Sermon for the celebration of homage. 1840.
• Expert opinion in favor of the prayer book of the Hamburg Temple 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 , VI. Year, No. 5, Leipzig 1842, pp. 60-63. ( Digital version with compact memory ).
• Opinion in favor of Abraham Geiger , 1842.
• Greeting address to the rabbinical assembly, 1845.

literature

• General newspaper of Judaism. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction. Edited by Dr. Ludwig Philippson , III. Year, No. 90, Leipzig 1839, p. 485 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. 5th year, No. 31, Leipzig 1841, p. 33 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• The Orient: Reports, Studies, and Reviews for Jewish History and Literature. Edited by Julius Fürst , Leipzig 1843, p. 130 f.
• General newspaper of Judaism. IX. Year, No. 3, Leipzig 1845, p. 473 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. Xth year, No. 48, Leipzig 1846, p. 705 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. XII. Year, No. 43, Leipzig 1848, p. 621 ( digitized from Compact Memory ).
• General newspaper of Judaism. XVI. Year, No. 51, Leipzig 1852, p. 607 ff. ( Nekrolog und Gedicht) ( digitized with Compact Memory ).
• Meyer Kayserling (ed.): Library of Jewish pulpit speakers. A chronological collection of the sermons, biographies, and characteristics of the finest Jewish preachers. Volume II, Julius Springer, Berlin 1872, p. 308.
• The Jewish Encyclopedia. Volume V, pp. 516, New York and London 1901-1906.
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Chernivtsi (Chernivtsi) 1925–1931, Volume II, p. 335.
• Encyclopaedia Judaica . Judaism in the past and present. Volume IV, Berlin 1929-1934, p. 1187.
• Bernhard Brilling : Judaism in the province of Westphalia 1815-1945. In: Contributions to the history of the Prussian province of Westphalia. Volume II: Church and religious communities in the province of Westphalia. Münster 1978, p. 108 ff.
• Arno Herzig : Judaism and Emancipation in Westphalia. Münster 1973, p. 46.
• Ursula Hesse: Jewish life in Alme, Altenbüren, Brilon, Madfeld, Messinghausen, Rösenbeck, Thülen. From the beginning to the present. Brilon 1991, pp. 79, 93, 96-98, 116.
• Jewish life in the Hochsauerland. Fredeburg 1994, pp. 53, 69.
• Rudolf Wlaschek: Biographia Judaica Bohemiae. Dortmund 1995, p. 58.
• Sabine Omland: On the history of the Jews in Drensteinfurt 1811-1941. Warendorf 1997, pp. 334-37.
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 1: A-I. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 376.
• Suzanne Zittartz-Weber: Between Religion and State: The Jewish Communities in the Prussian Rhine Province 1815-1871. Essen 2003, p. 203.
• Erika Richter: The Friedlanders. An important Jewish family in the Sauerland. In: Yearbook Hochsauerlandkreis. 2008, ISSN  0931-1149 , pp. 101-106.
• Georg Glade: The Jews in the former Duchy of Westphalia. In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Vol. 2.2 Münster, 2012 p. 1055.
• Entry FRIEDLÄNDER, Joseph. 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, p. 343 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jewish encyclopedia from 1901-1906 in English