Michael Silberstein

Michael Silberstein (born November 21, 1834 in Witzenhausen , Kurhessen ; died October 13, 1910 in Wiesbaden ) was a German rabbi and writer .

Life

Michael Silberstein was the son of the religion teacher Joël Silberstein and Jette Wertheimer. He received Talmud lessons from the local rabbi Frenckel, attended the community school and received private lessons in German, Latin and French.

Silberstein should first become a merchant. Since he wanted to become a rabbi, however, he attended the newly established educational institution for Jewish teachers in Hanover ( Veitel Ephraimsche Foundation ) from 1850 , which he left after three years with the final exam. He conducted further studies in Kassel and with the rabbi Heilbut in Geestemünde .

He studied theology and philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin from 1855 to 1858. His role models and teachers were the completely opposing Rabbis Michael Sachs and Joseph Aub . Leopold Ranke awakened and promoted his historical sense. For a time he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau Fraenckel'sche Foundation .

He took his first position as a teacher in 1858 in Pleschen , Province of Posen ; However, after barely a year and a half, in 1860, he was appointed as a religion teacher and preacher at the district synagogue in Lyck (East Prussia).

In 1861 he received his doctorate in Jena with the dissertation De Abraham ben Meïr Aben Esrae principiis philosophiae.

In November 1864 he married Rebecca Maurer from Hannoversch-Münden (born 1840).

In 1865 he was ordained as a rabbi by Joseph Aub in Mainz .

Buttenhausen and Mühringen

After eight years of activity, he moved to Württemberg in 1868, where he initially took over the rabbinate of the Jewish community of Buttenhausen . In the years 1871–1872, the synagogue underwent a fundamental renovation and expansion through him. In 1874 he was transferred to Mühringen in the Black Forest, where he worked until 1885. In 1869 the Württemberg government convened an assembly of delegates to discuss a draft constitution for the Israelite religious community. Silberstein, as a rabbinical member of this commission, appeared before the plenum with a lengthy exposé and was pleased that almost all of his proposals were accepted. Through his speech at the grave of Berthold Auerbach , Dr. Silberstein was known to the general public, and when the rabbinical seat in Wiesbaden became vacant, he was installed as a rabbi.

Wiesbaden

Silberstein founded the Israelite Support Association , the Israelite Orphan Fund and the community library . His involvement in the Alliance Israélite Universelle and in the German-Israelite Community Association was particularly active . He established a foundation to support Jewish students, which Dr. Michael and Rebekka Silberstein Foundation . He received the Order of the Red Eagle, IV class , for his services .

Publications

• Speech given at the oath of a Jewish lawyer before he entered the civil service. In: Jüdisches Volksblatt. 1865.
• The entablature sinks through nonchalance. Schemini Azeretus sermon. In: Ben-Chananja. Monthly for Jewish theology and for Jewish life in congregations, synagogues and schools. Supplement, Szegedin 1866.
• Occasional sermons by Jewish pulpit speakers. Fourth volume: Dāvār be'ittō. Sermons on special occasions affecting the congregation. Stutsch Verlagbuchhandlung, Breslau 1870 GoogleBooks .
• Sermon at victory and peace celebrations. Esslingen 1871.
• Moses Mendelssohn. A picture of life. Lecture, Esslingen 1872.
• The house of God - our guardian. Sermon at the inauguration of the restored synagogue in Buttenhausen. Esslingen 1872.
• The Social Question and the Mosaic Legislation. Lecture given on March 3, 1873. Esslingen 1873.
• The Israelite family. Sermon. and this year here, and next year in the holy land. Sermon. In: Israeli Sermon Magazine. Published by Rahmer, 1875.
• The heroes have fallen. Two memorial speeches for Kaiser Wilhelm I and Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm. 1880.
• Words spoken on the stretcher by Berthold Auerbach . Wroclaw 1882.
• Our alliances. Esslingen 1883.
• Sheets to commemorate the farewell to the synagogue in Wenkheim, as well as the inauguration of the new synagogue in Tübingen. Four sermons, plus a story of the Esslingen parish. 1883.
• The spiritual office is a pastoral office. Inaugural sermon in Wiesbaden. 1884.
• A disciple of Moses Mendelssohn . Speech at the grave of Blessed Land Rabbi Dr. Lazar Adler held in Cassel. Kassel 1886.
• Gabriel Riesser . A fighter for law and freedom. Lecture given on February 3, 1890. Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1890 ( digitized version ).
• Guide for the Israelite religious instruction, at the same time to prepare for the confirmation. Wiesbaden 1888, 2nd edition 1889.
• Introductory Ideas on the History of the Jews and Judaism. 1891.
• The Israelite Religious School in its historical development, with special consideration of the Nassau conditions. Lecture, 1891.
• Wolf Breidenbach and the abolition of the Leibzoll in Germany. 1891.
• My belief: a seal. 1906.

literature

• Meyer Kayserling : Library of Jewish pulpit speakers. A Chronological Collection of the Sermons, Biographies, and Characteristics of the Most Excellent Jewish Preachers. Along with a homiletical and literary sheet . Volume II, Berlin 1872, p. 270 ( digitized in the Google book search).
• Meyer Kayserling: The Jewish literature of Moses Mendelssohn up to the present. Berlin 1896, p. 821 ( digitized version ).
• The Jewish Encyclopedia. Volume XI, New York and London 1901-1906, p. 336.
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Volume V, Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) 1925–1931, p. 514.
• Entry SILBERSTEIN, Michael, Dr. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (editors), edited by Carsten Wilke : Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781–1871. K G Saur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-24871-7 , pp. 812f.