Leo stairs

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Leo Trepp (bronze bust in front of the Oldenburg synagogue)

Leo Trepp (born on 4. March 1913 in Mainz , died on 2. September 2010 in San Francisco ) was a German - American rabbi and professor of Jewish Studies and Humanities .

Life

Leo Trepp's parents were Maier Trepp (1873–1941) from Fulda and Selma Ziporah Hirschberger (1879–1942) from Oberlauringen . Leo Trepp's brother is Gustav Israel Trepp (1917–2014).

Leo Trepp passed his Abitur at the grammar school at the Electoral Palace in 1931 and then studied philosophy and philology at the University of Frankfurt and the University of Berlin . He did his doctorate on June 16, 1935 at the University of Würzburg under Adalbert Hämel with a thesis on “ Taine , Montaigne , Richeome . Your conceptions of religion and church. A contribution to the French essence ”to the Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) . He was the last Jewish student who received his doctorate under the rule of the National Socialists at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Würzburg. The simultaneous training at the rabbinical seminar in Berlin, which had been founded by the neo-orthodox rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer, led to his ordination as a rabbi in 1936 .

He took up the post of rabbi in Oldenburg on August 1, 1936 - initially as a representative of the Prussian State Association of Jewish Communities . On November 22, 1936, he was unanimously elected as a regional rabbi by the Jewish regional council in Oldenburg. He held this position until shortly after the November pogroms in 1938 , until mid-December 1938. During this short term of office, with the help of an Oldenburg government official, he managed to set up a Jewish school in which the children of the community were taught together until the end of April 1940, while they had been banned from attending public schools since 1938.

On April 26, 1938, he married Miriam de Haas (1916–1999), the daughter of his predecessor in office, State Rabbi Philipp de Haas (1884–1935). A daughter was born from this marriage.

Together with his male community members, Trepp was initially taken into so-called protective custody in Oldenburg (November 10-11, 1938) . Together with 42 other men, SA troops led stairs past the still burning synagogue through the city center. He was then deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp (November 11-30, 1938). He was released from the concentration camp as a result of an objection by the then British Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz and emigrated to England on December 18, 1938 . From there he later emigrated to the USA , studied at Harvard University and officiated as a rabbi in various communities. In 1951 he was appointed to Napa College in California, where he was a professor of philosophy and the humanities until his retirement in 1983.

In 1971 he read about Jewish theology at the University of Hamburg and about the basics of Judaism at the University of Oldenburg . From then on he came to Germany regularly, accompanied the Oldenburg congregation in their re-establishment and taught at various universities. In addition, he gave numerous lectures and campaigned for the dialogue between Jews and Christians, which he himself led throughout his life. He vehemently advocated the establishment of a subject of Jewish studies at German universities. Since 1983 he has taught almost annually as a professor of Jewish studies in the Protestant theology department at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz ; since 1988 he has been an honorary professor there. On May 27, 1996, he set fire to the Ner Tamid to rededicate the synagogue in Mainz-Weisenau .

Since 1986 he has been an honorary member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis . Leo Trepp was the last rabbi still alive who had already held office during the Nazi era .

After the death of his first wife Miriam on December 15, 1999, Trepp lived with the widow Gunda Wöbken-Ekert , who was born in 1958 and who later became his second wife, from 2000 onwards.

Leo Trepp died on September 2, 2010 in San Francisco.

Thought and work

Throughout his life, Trepp was concerned with the question of how Jews in the modern world could maintain and strengthen their Jewish identity while at the same time opening up to the environment and being responsible citizens. He taught and wrote about Jewish thinkers and examined the extent to which their approaches could be carried over to the present day. And he showed that Diaspora Judaism, in particular, had been developing continuously for thousands of years, out of internal Jewish necessity and also because it was challenged to behave towards the majority society and its demands and hostility. The Shoah had a profound influence on his thinking and writing. After the murder of six million Jews, his focus was now on strengthening the Jewish community. He tried to make their religion and culture more accessible to the Jews, in particular, and to impart more solid Jewish knowledge. He also pleaded for non-Jewish spouses to be more closely involved in communities and for converting to Judaism to be made easier. He campaigned for equal rights for women in Jewish communities and practiced it in the communities he oversees.

From the 1960s onwards he wrote books on Judaism with which he wanted to reach Jews as well as non-Jews. In his letter he was concerned with "helping to learn to understand the Jewish religion as a living faith, to recognize the breadth and depth of its work and the lasting achievements that it brought to mankind". For the non-Jewish side, his hope was always that concrete knowledge about Judaism would avoid new stereotypes and new hostilities against Jews. In his view, an open intellectual exchange between different cultures and religions and an understanding of common values ​​and goals were essential for the well-being of a society.

In books, lectures and sermons he discussed the question of what Jewish culture and ethics meant in the everyday life of Jews and what they can contribute to general culture. He particularly emphasized that important values ​​should be preserved even in the event of integration and that the Jewish value system should not be lost. “Faith shaped people, and people shaped their beliefs in a never-ending development. Judaism is eternal faith and eternal people, a never-ending dialogue between God and man. "

In his final years, Trepp observed an increase in anti-Semitism and indifference on the part of non-Jews to anti-Jewish attacks. “There should be a nationwide outcry when Jews are attacked with a kippah on their heads,” said Trepp in a speech on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in 2005 in front of the Mainz state parliament special responsibility in Germany to fight anti-Semitism, hatred and prejudice. However, Trepp also recognized a growing anti-Zionism, both in Germany and in other countries. He considered this to be particularly problematic because it often goes hand in hand with an ignorance of realities and sees both sides in the Middle East conflict in defined victim and perpetrator roles. "One may even perceive this attitude as anti-Semitic, because it is carried by prejudices that appear to be unchangeable and that apply to members of a whole group, namely the Jews."

He himself repeatedly expressed himself critical of the politics and government of Israel. He pleaded for a strengthening of non-orthodox directions and a two-state solution.

Honors

Publications

Books

  • Eternal Faith, Eternal People. A Journey into Judaism. 1962
  • The state community of Jews in Oldenburg. The nucleus of Jewish life (1827–1938) and mirror of Jewish fate. Oldenburg 1965
  • Judaism. Development and Life. Wadsworth 1966
  • Judaism. History and living present. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1969. (Later renamed: Die Juden - Volk, Geschichte, Religion. )
  • The Oldenburg Jewry. Image and role model of Jewish existence and becoming in Germany. Oldenburg 1973
  • A History of the Jewish Experience. Behrmann House, 1973
  • The Complete Book of Jewish Observance. Behrmann House, 1980
  • The history of the Oldenburg Jews and their extermination. Isensee Verlag, 1988
  • The American Jews. Profile of a community. Kohlhammer, 1991
  • Jewish worship - shape and development. Kohlhammer, 1992
  • History of the German Jews. Kohlhammer, 1996
  • The legacy of the German Jews. Center for German Studies, Ben-Gurion University and Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, 2000
  • "Your God is my God". Paths to Judaism and the Jewish Community. Kohlhammer, 2005

Essays

  • “Of German Jewry,” Conservative Judaism 3 (Nov. 1946), pp. 1-8
  • “The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig and that of Reconstructionism”, The Reconstructionist October 31, 1947 (Vol. 12)
  • “A Proposal for Judging the Church”, Emuna 4 (1969), pp. 363-366
  • "The Scriptures in the Light of the Talmud", Emuna 7 (1972), pp. 330-338
  • "Thoughts on the position of women", Tradition and Renewal 42 (Bern 1977), pp. 28-32
  • Jewish ethics: Basics and ways of life , in: "Ethics in non-Christian cultures", Mokrosch et al. (Ed.), 1984
  • “Toward a 'S'likhah' on the Holocaust”, Judaism 35 (1986), p. 344

Others

  • Nigune Magenza. Jewish liturgical chants from Mainz. (including sheet music and 2 audio CDs), Mainz 2004.
  • Leo Trepp in Oldenburg: The 95-year-old tells about his life in Oldenburg during the Nazi period. NWZ-TV, July 31, 2008

Audio book production

  • Rabbi Leo Trepp tells from his life: "Tzedek, tzedek Tirdof - You should pursue justice, justice. Paul Lazarus Foundation, Wiesbaden, 2014, ISBN 978-3-942902-09-0

literature

  • Gunda Trepp: The last rabbi: The unorthodox life of Leo Trepp . WBG, Darmstadt, 2018, ISBN 978-3-8062-3818-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Trepp Family Collection
  2. ↑ [1] Gunnar Bartsch: Role models in dark times (accessed on December 26, 2015)
  3. ↑ On this: Although the "racial segregation" in the school system [...] has generally already been carried out in recent years, there is still a remnant of Jewish students in German schools who are no longer allowed to attend school with German boys and girls can be. (From the official gazette of the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and National Education and the Education Administration of the Länder, Volume 4 (1938), p. 520, quoted from the website of the Jewish Museum Berlin.)
  4. ^ Trepp, Leo: Die Oldenburger Judenschaft, Oldenburg 1973, page 326 ff.
  5. ↑ NLA OL Best. 134 No. 808 - Establishment of public vol… - Arcinsys detail page. Retrieved November 8, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Paulsen, Jörg: Memories book: a directory of the inhabitants of the city of Oldenburg affected by the Nazi persecution of Jews 1933-1945, Bremen 2001, page 146.
  7. ↑ Memory course . As a reminder and warning, citizens of Oldenburg initiated a reconstruction of this deportation route as a silent route in 1982. Since then, this commemorative tour has been celebrated annually on November 10th by several hundred to several thousand Oldenburgers. On November 10, 1988, 50 years after the November pogroms, Trepp himself took part in this commemorative tour with great sympathy from Oldenburg.
  8. ^ Memoirs of Rabbi Leo Trepp ; in the Diocese of Würzburg; accessed on July 30, 2020.
  9. ^ Igal Avidan: Leo Trepp: One of the last eyewitnesses ; Interview in Tachles of July 7, 2006; Retrieved from hagalil.com on September 3, 2010.
  10. ↑ Gunda Trepp at gnd. accessed on November 9, 2018.
  11. ↑ biography at leotrepp.org. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
  12. ^ Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz mourns the loss of Rabbi Prof. Dr. Leo Trepp ; Message from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz dated September 3, 2010.
  13. ↑ The last of its kind in: Jüdische Allgemeine, accessed on July 30, 2020.
  14. ↑ See also: “Samson Raphael Hirsch, Neo-Orthodox Reformer and the Way to the Present”, in Lebendiges Judentum. Texts from the years 1943-2010 , Kohlhammer 2013.
  15. ↑ see: "Your God is my God" Kohlhammer Verlag, accessed on July 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Leo Trepp in the foreword to his book Die Juden from 1996.
  17. ↑ From my own experience in: Jüdische Allgemeine, accessed on July 30, 2020.
  18. ^ In: The History of Jewish Experience
  19. ↑ No guilt, but responsibility in: Deutsche Welle, accessed on July 30, 2020.
  20. ↑ Leo Trepp in: Lebendiges Judentum. Texts from the years 1943-2010 , Kohlhammer 2013
  21. ↑ People at the Schlossgymnasium
  22. ^ Obituary Leo Trepp ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on schloss-online.de (PDF; 5 kB)
  23. ↑ Appreciation: Street commemorates Leo Trepp - Ceremony for the 100th birthday of the last Oldenburg regional rabbi - Part of Wilhelmstrasse will be renamed on Sunday. The honorary citizen's merits are commemorated during a ceremony. by Sabine Schicke on nwzonline.de on February 25, 2013
  24. ↑ Marianne Grosse: "Naming is a coherent gesture because of Strep's enormous merits" ( Memento of December 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Press release of the City of Mainz of July 4, 2013
  25. ↑ Oliver Schulz: Jewish life enriches the city. nwzonline.de, August 14, 2017 ; accessed on August 15, 2017
  26. ↑ Leo Trepp in Oldenburg - Interview from July 31, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Stairs, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 2010
Place of death San Francisco