Markus Horovitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Markus Horovitz (born March 14, 1844 in Ladány near Tokaj , Austrian Empire ; died March 27, 1910 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a Hungarian historian and Orthodox rabbi in Lauenburg i. Pom. , Gnesen and Frankfurt am Main.

life and work

Youth and education

Markus Horovitz was born into an old family dynasty of scholars. He completed his training as a rabbi in Újhely, Verbé and a renowned rabbinical school in Eisenstadt with Esriel Hildesheimer . After graduating from high school, he followed his teacher Hildesheimer and studied philosophy and oriental languages ​​at the universities of Vienna , Budapest and Berlin , receiving his doctorate in Tübingen in 1871 .

Functions

As a rabbi he was initially in Lauenburg i. Pom. and then from 1874 active in Gniezno . In 1878 he was called to Frankfurt am Main as an Orthodox rabbi for the Israelite community.

At that time there were sharply acute differences between the Reformed and Orthodox Jews of this community, which culminated in the threat of the Orthodox to leave the community and to found their own, which was to be called the Israelite Religious Society. While a Prussian law from 1847 stipulated the amalgamation of the various religious currents in one community (valid until 1938), the so-called Lex Lasker created the possibility of resigning for reasons of conscience from 1876.

A major reason for the dispute was based on the reformed or liberal orientation of the Frankfurt main synagogue . The Orthodox, under the leadership of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, no longer wanted to follow the rite celebrated there. The board of directors of the Israelite community in Frankfurt saw in the appointment of Horovitz an option to avoid the split and at the same time appointed him to a so-called ritual commission. Before taking office, Horovitz stipulated that he should not only be on an equal footing with the liberal rabbis of the community, but should also be in charge of all institutions governed by religious law. The lack of acceptance of the main liberal synagogue on the part of the Orthodox resulted in their demand for the construction of their own Orthodox synagogue. This building, which was erected between 1881 and 1882 directly on the city's medieval Jewish cemetery , was colloquially called the Horovitz synagogue, after the square adjacent to it, the former Jewish market, also Börneplatz synagogue . During his tenure, Horovitz expanded the existing Israelite Religious School in Frankfurt into two model schools .

Horovitz was one of the founders and directors of the Rabbis Association in Germany, founded in 1896, and president of the German-Jewish orphanage in Jerusalem . In the sense of a constructive cooperation between the different currents of Judaism, he also worked, for example, on the founding of the Aid Association of German Jews , the Association of Traditionally Law-Abiding Jews and the Association of German Jews in the B'nai B'rith Order, which he helped initiate Board members he worked.

In July 1897 Horovitz was one of the protest rabbis who opposed the Zionism propagated by Theodor Herzl with the aim of a Jewish nation-state. These disputes also took place in the Frankfurt community, where Jacob Löb Goitein became one of Horovitz's opponents.

family

Markus Horovitz was the father of eleven children, including Jakob Horovitz (like his father, he was a rabbi in Frankfurt am Main) and the orientalist Josef Horovitz .

Publications

  • various essays on the origins of Hungarian Jews, in: Izraelita Közlöny, 1869
  • "On the history of the Jewish community in Eisenstadt", 1869
  • “Jose ben Jose”, in: Jewish Press, 1873
  • "Frankfurter Rabbinen", 4 volumes, 1882–1885, Olms, Hildesheim / New York, 1972, 2nd revised. and exp. Ed., ISBN 3-487-04282-7
  • "Jewish Doctors in Frankfurt / M.", Frankfurt am Main 1886
  • "Matte Levi", Collection of Talmudic Reports on Marriage Law, Frankfurt am Main 1891
  • "The charity among the Jews in the old Frankfurt", Frankfurt am Main 1896
  • "On the statistics of the Jewish population in old Frankfurt", Frankfurt am Main 1896
  • "The Frankfurt Rabbinical Assembly of 1603", Frankfurt am Main 1897
  • "The inscriptions of the old cemetery of the Israelite community in Frankfurt a. M.", Frankfurt am Main 1901
  • "From Liszka to Berlin", Verlag J. Kauffmann , Frankfurt am Main 1914

reputation

As the Orthodox rabbi of the Israelite community in Frankfurt am Main, Horovitz gained a reputation because he had succeeded on the one hand in asserting himself against the liberal Jews, but at the same time avoiding the secession of some of the Orthodox. He preserved the unity of the Frankfurt community while there was a division in other German cities. In practical work he demonstrated that a coexistence of the different religious currents and rites is possible, as long as everyone is given appropriate space and respect. His work was therefore viewed as exemplary by many other Jewish communities in Germany. To this day, many Jews regard him as a representative of a united Judaism.

Tomb

Rabbi Horovitz was buried in the Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil-Strasse in Frankfurt am Main. The speeches on the occasion of his funeral and funeral were published at the time.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary Markus Horovitz, Frankfurt am Main, in: In the German Reich, Journal of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, April 1919, pp. 392-394  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: compactmemory.de@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.compactmemory.de  
  2. ↑ Markus Horovitz on: judengasse.de
  3. ^ Adolf Kober: Markus Horovitz, To commemorate his 100th birthday, in: Aufbau (Deutsche Exilpresse), March 10, 1944 on: d-nb.de
  4. ^ Gudrun Jäger: The Jewish Islamic scholar Josef Horovitz and the chair for Semitic philology at the University of Frankfurt am Main 1915-1949 . In: Jörn Kobes, Jan-Otmar Hesse (Ed.): Frankfurt scientists between 1933 and 1945 . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2008. pp. 61–79, here p. 71.
  5. ^ Speeches Bereavement Markus Horovitz, 1919 on: lccn.loc.gov
personal data
SURNAME Horovitz, Markus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian historian and Orthodox rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Ladány near Tokaj , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1910
Place of death Frankfurt am Main