Max Grünewald

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Max Grünewald also Gruenewald (born December 4, 1899 in Koenigshütte , Province of Silesia ; died December 28, 1992 in Millburn , New Jersey ) was a German-American rabbi .

Life

Max Grünewald was the son of Simon Grünewald (born in Westphalia in 1868 , died in Palestine around 1921 ) and Klara Grünewald, née Ostheimer. Simon Grünewald was an elementary school teacher, director of the local business school and secretary of the synagogue community. Grünewald attended elementary school with his father and started high school when he was nine.

Grünewald fought as a soldier in the First World War in East Prussia in 1917/18 . In 1918 he began studying medicine in Breslau . From 1919 to 1925 he attended the Jewish-theological seminar Fraenckel'sche Stiftung in Breslau and studied philosophy, psychology, economics and oriental languages at the University of Breslau and did his doctorate with Eugen Kühnemann . In 1925 the Jewish community in Mannheim appointed him rabbi. In Mannheim he founded the youth community in 1925, was involved in the conception of the welfare office, which was founded the following year, and in 1929 was co-founder of the Jewish training center and editor of the Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt . During the time of National Socialism he campaigned for the establishment of Jewish school classes and prepared hundreds of community members for emigration.

On February 1, 1926, Max Grünewald married Hedwig Horovitz, daughter of his teacher Saul Horovitz. Hedwig was a practicing doctor. The marriage resulted in two sons.

In 1934 he also became chairman of the Jewish community and in 1935 conference rabbi. In 1936 Grünewald became a member of the Presidential Committee, the highest management body of the Reich Representation of German Jews . In April 1938 he went full-time to the Reich Representation in Berlin and was responsible for emigration. Shortly afterwards in August of the same year he emigrated to Palestine , in 1939 to the USA . In the following years he commuted between Palestine and the USA. In 1944 he finally settled in Millburn and was rabbi there from 1944 to 1970. In 1955 he was a co-founder and until 1985 President of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. From 1974 to 1991 he was international president of the organization. He was also chairman of the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe from 1952 to 1962 and one of the presidents of the Gustav Wurzweiler Foundation from 1954 to 1985 .

The Bar Ilan University in Israel awarded Grünewald an honorary doctorate in 1970 , as did the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1975. After his death in 1993, the city of Mannheim named a place after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • Simmel's philosophy with special consideration of its relationship to pragmatism. Dissertation Breslau 1925.
  • Liberalism and bourgeoisie. In: The Jewish Idea and its Carriers. Contributions to the question of Jewish liberalism and nationalism. Publication series of the Jüdischen Rundschau 1, 1928, p. 31 ff.
  • 75 years of the main synagogue in Mannheim. In: New Badische Landeszeitung. June 27, 1930.
  • Jewish Mannheim. In: Israelitisches Familienblatt for Hamburg, Altona and Wandsbek. Max Lessmann printing and publishing house, Hamburg, December 11, 1930.
  • The Jewish Teacher. In: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook. London / Oxford, 19 (1974), pp. 63-70.
  • The educational situation. In: Bulletin of the Leo Baeck Institute. 2 (1979), p. 50.

literature

  • Guido Kisch (Ed.): The Breslau seminar. Jewish-theological seminar (Fraenckelscher Foundation) in Breslau 1854-1938. Memorial. Tübingen 1963, p. 417.
  • Grünwald, Max. In: Karl Otto Watzinger : History of the Jews in Mannheim 1650-1945. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 93-94, ISBN 3-17-008696-0 .
  • Volker Keller: Jewish life in Mannheim . Mannheim 1995, ISBN 3-923003-71-4 .
  • Entry GRÜNEWALD, Max, Dr. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (eds.), Edited by Katrin Nele Jansen with the participation of Jörg H. Fehrs and Valentina Wiedner: Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 2: The rabbis in the German Empire 1871-1945. Volume 1: AARON – KUSZNITZKI. K G Saur, Munich 2009, p. 246 f., No. 2200.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shalom Adler-Rudel: Jewish self-help under the Nazi regime 1933-1939 . Tübingen 1974, ISBN 3-16-835232-2 , p. 17.
personal data
SURNAME Grünewald, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gruenewald, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigshütte
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1992
Place of death Millburn