Joseph Kahn (rabbi)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabbi Joseph Kahn

Joseph Kahn (born on September 2, 1809 in Wawern , then the French Empire ; died on July 10, 1875 in Amsterdam ) was Chief Rabbi of Trier from 1841 to 1875 .

Life

Joseph Kahn was the son of the Jewish prayer leader Mayer Kahn (1772–1813) and his wife Bees Kahn, b. Levy.

When Joseph was four years old, his father died and Jacob Samuel (1792-1858), his half-brother from his mother's first marriage, took over the guardianship for the time of the training . Joseph Kahn was unable to take up the intended occupation of cattle dealer due to an injury sustained when he fell from his horse. Hence it was determined that he should become a rabbi .

Joseph Kahn attended Meyr Lazard's Talmud school in Metz from 1823 and switched to Jakob Ettlinger's school in Mannheim in September 1827 , where after four years he was eligible for university entrance. From the end of 1831 he then studied theology for two semesters at the University of Heidelberg . From the winter semester of 1833/34 to May 1838 he continued his studies at the University of Bonn , where he heard lectures from, among others, August Wilhelm Schlegel and the theologians Karl Immanuel Nitzsch and Immanuel Hermann Fichte , son of Johann Gottlieb Fichte . He then apparently finished his studies without a degree. A “ price book about the Prophet Zacharias” written in 1837 did not achieve the price hoped for.

In 1840 Joseph Kahn first worked in the Jewish community of Saarlouis and drew attention to himself with his first sermons . On June 21, 1840 - before his time as rabbinate - he delivered the sermon in honor of Wilhelm II of the Netherlands on the Passover festival in Luxembourg .

After his appointment as rabbi in Koblenz had been thwarted by the Bonn consistory in 1840, he was elected chief rabbi of Trier on August 18, 1841 with 19 out of 25 votes by the Trier consistory . The Semicha under rabbinic ordination was carried out by the rabbis Lion Ullmann , Joseph Abraham Friedlander and Abraham Geiger , the inauguration in the Trier district office was on 15 December 1841 in the Trier synagogue on December 18, 1841 instead.

On October 14, 1844, he married Rebekka van Biema (1823-1858) from Leer , with whom he had three daughters. He died while visiting one of his daughters in Amsterdam in 1875. His grave is in the historic Jewish cemetery on Weidegasse in Trier.

Rabbinate

Joseph Kahn was a moderate advocate of Reform Judaism and represented many of the positions of the Luxembourg Chief Rabbi Samuel Hirsch , at whose inauguration in 1843 he gave the ceremonial address and with whom he had already studied in Bonn. Both took part in the reform rabbinical conferences in Braunschweig (1844), Frankfurt am Main (1845) and Breslau (1846). He countered his pragmatic point of view too swift and thoroughgoing reform efforts, since one should not disappoint even those who could see no need for reforms. Reforms should therefore take place in smaller steps. Nevertheless, he was attacked for his positions by representatives of conservative Judaism from Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Trier. As a sign of the renewal of Judaism, Joseph Kahn significantly promoted the construction of new synagogues in his district. The new synagogue in Trier, inaugurated in 1859, stands out from the more than 30 Jewish places of worship built during his time in office.

He had a realistic attitude towards the dispute about the equality of the Jewish citizens in the areas on the left bank of the Rhine in Prussia . The citizenship right granted to the Jews by Napoleon I , which made them citizens of France with equal rights, also applied from 1801 to the areas on the left bank of the Rhine that now belonged to France . However, this equality was restricted in 1808. The aim of this restriction, limited to ten years - for example, the freedom of movement , free trade and the ability to enforce claims in court - was to promote the process of integration by giving it more control. After the left bank of the Rhine in 1815, by the Congress of Vienna , Prussia had been slammed, prolonged Prussia these provisions again and circumcised the civil rights of the Jews. In 1843, 150 citizens of Trier wrote a petition in which they called for the equality of Jews promised in 1815, as it had been introduced under French rule. Joseph Kahn then asked in a sermon for the blessing of the citizens of Trier. When the Prussian state wanted to prescribe new statutes for the Jewish communities in 1847, Kahn was one of the founders of the “Comité for the Affairs of Jews in the Rhine Province”.

In newspaper articles he repeatedly spoke out against injustices against Jews or Jewish communities and demanded that state and religion be as independent as possible. On the other hand, Kahn emphatically advocated the entry of Jews into military service in order to express the demand for equal rights, also with regard to civic duties. At the same time, he campaigned for school education in the numerous small communities in the Trier region and lamented the injustice associated with the fact that Jews had to raise the money for religious instruction themselves, while at the same time contributing to general school costs .

On the occasion of his 25th anniversary in office on December 15, 1866, Leopold Löw called him “one of the most capable champions for light and progress” in the magazine Ben Chananja . His activity as a rabbi is documented in around 140 personal and third-party testimonials - articles, communications and editorial contributions in Jewish magazines.

Publications

In addition to his sermons, some of which are in print - the titles collected in the library of Jewish pulpit speakers by Meyer Kayserling, 1872, who himself printed the speech Love and Reconciliation according to the doctrine of Judaism from 1865 - he wrote a large number of articles , for example for the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums or for the magazine Ben Chananja published by Leopold Löw .

Sermons and speeches published in print by Kahn (selection)
  • Speech given at the special service, in honor of S. Maj. Our King and Grand Duke Wilhelm II, with the very highest presence in our city of Luxembourg on June 21 (1840)
  • “The endeavors of the new rabbis only aim at restoring the true old Judaism.” Sermon, given when he took office on the Sabbath Vajigasch the Elder. 5. Tebeth 5602 (December 18, 1841). Hall'sche Buchhandlung, Trier 1842.
  • The celebration of the inauguration of the new synagogue in Trier, on 9-10 September 1859 (11/10 Ellul 5619). J. Kahn, Trier 1860.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul R. Mendes-Flohr , Jehuda Reinharz : The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, New York 1995, ISBN 0-19-507452-1 , p. 183; Manfred Jehle: The Jews and the Jewish communities of Prussia in official Enquêten des Vormärz (= individual publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin. Volume 82). KG Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3-598-23226-8 , p. 1472.
  2. ^ A b c Meyer Kayserling: Library of Jewish pulpit speakers. A Chronological Collection of the Sermons, Biographies, and Characteristics of the Most Excellent Jewish Preachers. Volume 2. Springer, Berlin 1872, p. 298 f.
  3. ↑ Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach, Carsten Wilke: Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. KG Saur, Munich 2004, p. 500.
  4. ^ Yearbook for West German State History. Volumes 17-18. Self-published by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Archives Administration, Koblenz 1991, p. 171.
  5. ↑ On Joseph Kahn and Reform Judaism see Willi Körtels: Der Trierer Oberrabbiner Joseph Kahn, pp. 37–41.
  6. ↑ On building activity under Joseph Kahn Willi Körtels: Der Trierer Oberrabbiner Joseph Kahn, pp. 49–55.
  7. ↑ For the following see Willi Körtels: Der Trier Oberrabbiner Joseph Kahn, pp. 41–48.
  8. ↑ On the Napoleonic and Prussian Jewish decrees of this time cf. about ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Willi Körtels: The Trier Chief Rabbi Joseph Kahn, p. 43 f.
  10. ↑ Willi Körtels: The Trier Chief Rabbi Joseph Kahn, p. 44.
  11. ↑ Willi Körtels: The Trier Chief Rabbi Joseph Kahn, p. 47 f.
  12. ↑ Willi Körtels: The Trier Chief Rabbi Joseph Kahn, p. 46 f.
  13. ^ Leopold Löw: From the administrative districts of Trier. In: Ben Chananja of December 1, 1866, p. 846 ( digitized version ).
  14. ↑ Willi Körtels: The Trier Chief Rabbi Joseph Kahn , p. 9 f.
personal data
SURNAME Kahn, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chief Rabbi of Trier
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Wawern
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1875
Place of death Amsterdam