Marc Stern
Marc Schlomo Jizchak Stern (born March 28, 1956 in Antwerp ; † April 13, 2005 in Osnabrück ) was a cantor , Orthodox rabbi , teacher, spiritual director of the Jewish community of the former government district of Osnabrück and author of several books on Judaism .
Life
Marc Schlomo Jizchak Stern comes from a family of cantors and rabbis who had lived in Hungary for more than seven generations. Through his paternal grandmother he belongs to the famous rabbi dynasty Meisels, who in turn are descendants of Rama , Reb Mosche Isserles , the author of the "Mappa".
On his mother's side, he comes from a family of Hasidim who settled in Transylvania . After the Shoah , Imre Stern and Rozsi Zitron, his future parents, met in a home for war orphans in Budapest. They married in 1945 and emigrated to Belgium . Imre Stern became cantor in Antwerp, where Marc Stern was born in 1956. In 1959 Imre Stern moved with his family to Brussels, where they became chief cantor of the Orthodox Jewish community.
The young Marc Stern went to the Jewish school “Ecole israélite - Athénée Maimonide” and also learned the basics of the Torah and Talmud from private Jewish teachers . At the age of 17 he became cantor in the Beth-Israel Synagogue in Brussels. At the age of 18 he accepted the post of cantor in the synagogue of the Jewish old people's home in Brussels. In 1980 Marc Stern made his first tours as a guest choirmaster to England and America, and in the same year he returned to the Beth-Israel Synagogue as senior choirmaster at the age of 24. Among the teachers who trained Marc Stern as a cantor was his father, as well as chief cantor Yehoshua teacher from Antwerp and his cousin, chief cantor Mosche Stern from Jerusalem, with whom Marc Stern gave numerous concerts.
In 1984 Marc Stern went on another tour that took him to South Africa, Australia, America and Canada. After that year he worked as a religion teacher in state schools in Belgium and at the same time made appearances as a guest cantor throughout Europe, Hungary, the USA, Canada and Israel. During all these years Marc Stern studied under the guidance of Rabbi Menachem Dan Meisels, the rabbi and teacher of the yeshivot Beth Hatalmud and Beth Shmuel in Jerusalem.
Marc Stern studied further with Rabbi Meisels in Natanja, where he received his semicha in 1994 . In the same year he followed a call to the Jewish community in Osnabrück. There he held a teaching position for Jewish religion at the university between 1996 and 1998 . Rabbi Marc Stern also looked after other Jewish communities in Lower Saxony where there was no rabbi and was responsible for kashrut in the Lola-Fischel-Haus Jewish senior citizens' home in Hanover.
His activities at the university led to the first book "Lived Jewish Festivals". This was followed by further publications: "The disturbed Shabbat", "The ten commandments" in collaboration with the evangelical theologian Prof. Dr. Horst Georg Pöhlmann , “What is Judaism?” And a.
Rabbi Marc Stern died on April 13, 2005 as a result of a serious illness that made him dependent on a wheelchair for the last 11 years of his life. He was buried in the new Jewish cemetery in Osnabrück .
Books
- Lived Jewish festivals. Remembering - celebrating - telling . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1999, ISBN 3-579-02236-9
- The disturbed Shabbat. Hasidic stories . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-579-00747-5
- Marc Stern and Horst Georg Pöhlmann: The Ten Commandments in Jewish-Christian Dialogue . Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-87476-372-2
- What is Judaism? - The most common questions and their answers . Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-87476-388-9 ; Bonifatius-Verlag, Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-89710-191-2
- Melody for a kaddish - rabbi stories . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2002, ISBN 3-579-01214-2 (= Gütersloh paperback books, volume 1214)
- The most beautiful biblical stories from a Jewish perspective . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2003, ISBN 3-579-01218-5 (= Gütersloh paperback books, volume 1218)
Web links
- Literature by and about Marc Stern in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stern, Marc |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stern, Marc Schlomo Jizchak (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Orthodox rabbi of the Jewish community of Osnabrück, author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 28, 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Antwerp |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 13, 2005 |
| Place of death | Osnabrück |