Marcus Breger

Marcus Breger (born May 18, 1905 in Chernivtsi , Bukowina , Austria-Hungary ; † September 30, 1975 in Tucson , Arizona , United States ) was an Austrian - Romanian- US-American rabbi and university teacher .

Life

Marcus Breger was born on May 18, 1905 in Czernowitz, the traditional capital of Bucovina, as the son of Marcus and Liebe Breger (née Druckmann). From 1924 to 1931 he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Wroclaw and at the same time attended courses at the University of Wroclaw , where he received his doctorate in 1930 . In the following year he passed his rabbinical exams and acted as a lecturer in Berlin from 1931 to 1932 . During this time he was also co-editor in writing the German-language edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica and published other articles in specialist journals in Germany. In his dissertation , published in 1932, he wrote about contributions to the trading history of Jews in Poland during the 17th century . After the seizure of power of Hitler emigrated Breger in 1933 to Italy , a professor of before 1933-1938 Talmud Studies and History at the Collegio Rabbinico Convito on the territories occupied by the Italians Rhodes worked. At the same time, Breger was head of the religious court.

In 1938 he was expelled from Italy and emigrated in December 1938 and January 1939 with his wife and child on the SS Rex , where he is mentioned as Marcus Breger-Landesberg in the passenger lists, from Genoa via New York City to the United States . He worked there from 1939 to 1950 as a rabbi and served in parallel, from 1943 to 1946 as a military chaplain in the United States Army . After he was 65 years old, Breger became Rabbi emeritus of the Anshei Israel Congregation in Tucson , Arizona , where he had lived for the past few decades until his death. During this time he was Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Missouri in 1971 , and from 1971 to 1975 first Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Arizona .

Breger was a member of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the Rabbinical Council of America , the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America , the B'nai B'rith Organization , the Military Chaplains Association , the Association of Jewish Chaplains , the Rotary Club and the Great Tucson Jewish Community Council . He has appeared repeatedly in newspapers and on television. So he had an appearance in This Is Your Life with Ralph Edwards in 1955 . Breger died on September 30, 1975 at the age of 70 in Tucson and was buried in Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery in Tucson. In his honor, The Arizona Center of Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona introduced the The Rabbi Marcus Breger Memorial Lectureship after his death . The university also runs the Rabbi Marcus Breger Memorial Fund .

family

Marcus Breger was born as the son of Jacob and Liebe Breger (née Druckmann). His siblings include Tony Moment and Sol Breger. In 1933 he married the Jewish dentist Bertha Rittenberg (* 1909 in St. Petersburg , † 2001 in Tucson , Arizona ). On October 9, 1936, their daughter Liba Breger (married Feuerstein; † October 2, 2013 in California ), a future teacher, was born in Rhodes . According to various sources, he is said to have had another child with his wife.

Breger was born with Austrian citizenship, took Romanian citizenship in 1918 and US citizenship in 1943.

literature

• Werner Röder (Hrsg.): Biographical handbook of German-speaking economic emigration after 1933–1945 , Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston, 1980, ISBN 978-3-598-11420-5 , p. 90
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , pp. 163-164.

Web links

• Marcus Breger in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Marcus Breger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• U Of A Research (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Rabbi Marcus Breger Memorial Lectureship , accessed December 28, 2018