Seligmann Bear Bamberger

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Seligmann Bär Bamberger , also known as "Würzburger Raw" or "Würzburger Rav" ( November 6, 1807 in Wiesenbronn - October 13, 1878 in Würzburg ), was a German rabbi , textbook author and important representative of Orthodox Judaism .

Life

Seligmann Bär Bamberger was born in Wiesenbronn near Kitzingen as the son of Simon (Sim'ha) Bamberger , a small trader and rabbi, and Judith Hatzfeld, daughter of Rabbi Moses Löw Hatzfeld . He grew up in the traditions of Franconian Orthodox rural Jewry. His teacher was initially Gerson Levi (rabbi in Wiesenbronn and Dajan in Fürth). From 1822 he attended the yeshiva in Fürth . There he learned from Juda-Löb Halberstadt and Wolf Hamburg .

After five years of study, Bamberger returned to his home village at the age of 20 as a trained rabbi, but as a private scholar without an office, where he and his wife ran a small shop for a living. At the age of 22 he married the daughter of the Rabbi von Fulda . From then on, his wife ran the business and he devoted himself to studying.

His reputation as a scholar reached the outside world from his home village, and students from all over Germany made pilgrimages to him. He did not accept any money for lessons.

Rabbi Seligmann Bär Bamberger appeared in public for the first time in 1836. The Bavarian government wanted to gain clarity in the dispute between the orthodox and the increasingly strong liberal branch of Judaism. In every district government, including in Würzburg, a meeting of rabbis, teachers and parishioners was called to discuss certain predetermined questions. Bamberger was sent to represent Orthodoxy for his community. At this meeting, Seligmann Bär Bamberger caught the eye of the reigning Würzburg rabbi Abraham Bing, who was already 80 years old . He wanted the young man to be his successor in the office of rabbi.

Bamberger then also registered for election to the district rabbi in 1840. He was elected in February 1840 with 310 votes out of 500. His defeated opponent was the liberal Schelling student Max Lilienthal , who received his doctorate in Munich and was the reigning rabbi in Riga at the time. In addition to the city of Würzburg, Bamberger's district also included 29 Lower Franconian villages.

On September 10, 1841, Seligman Bär Bamberger inaugurated the newly built synagogue (Domerschulstrasse 21).

Educating young people in the Jewish faith was particularly important to Rabbi Bamberger. He feared that the few religious hours he taught per week would not be enough, but that the risk of assimilation of the Würzburg Jews was too great. He belonged to the group of rabbis who, despite the Jewish edict of 1813, adhered to the Jewish law. First he opened a Talmud school . In 1856 he founded what was initially a private “Israelitische Erziehungs und Lehranstalt”. It was a six-class elementary school for boys and girls. The first teachers' seminar followed in 1864, the "Israelitische Lehrerbildungsanstalt in Würzburg" (ILBA), which served to train Jewish religious teachers and was located in Kettengasse 6 until 1884 and in Domerpfaffengasse (today Bibrastraße 6) until the 1930s. He had written numerous popular textbooks for the religious instruction of young people and laypeople alike.

Memorial plaque on the Alte Universität campus, Domerschulstrasse 6, Würzburg

Rabbi Bamberger gave lectures every Sabbath in order to see religion put into practice in the everyday life of every Jew. He regularly sent money to Eretz Israel and suggested building the first Jewish hospital in Palestine . Seligmann Bär Bamberger wrote three books in which he explained the Jewish laws and mitzvot in simple language .

Rabbi Seligmann Bär Bamberger died on the second day of the Feast of Tabernacles in 1878 during the service and was buried in the local Jewish cemetery in Höchberg .

He was married to Kela Wormser (1804–1881), the daughter of Seckel Wormser , rabbi in Fulda.

Seligmann Bär Bamberger had nine children. His eldest daughter Rachel Rivka married Pinchas Seligmann Fromm (1822–1898), the rabbi of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and the grandfather of Erich Fromm . Bamberger's son Moses Löb Bamberger became a rabbi in Bad Kissingen . His son Simcha Bamberger (1832-1897) became a rabbinical judge in Aschaffenburg . His son Nathan Bamberger took over his father’s office for two years after his death before he was elected as his successor in Würzburg in 1880. His grandson Selig Pinchas Bamberger became a rabbi and rabbinical judge in Hamburg.

literature

  • Shaul Esh (Ed.): The Bamberger Family. The Descendants of Rabbi Seligmann Bär Bamberger, the "Würzburger Rav". Wahrmann Books, Jerusalem 1964.
  • Roland Flade: Jewish family stories from Lower Franconia. Main-Post, Würzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-925232-89-3 , pp. 27-32.
  • Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. Volume III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, pp. 499-528 and 1306-1308, here: pp. 513-519.
  • New German biography . Volume 14: Laverrenz - Locher-Freuler. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1985, p. 73 in the article Lehmann, Marcus.
  • Carsten Wilke : Bamberger, Seligmann Bear. In: Michael Brocke , Julius Carlebach (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: Carsten Wilke: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781–1871. Volume 1: Aach - Juspa. KG Saur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-24871-7 , pp. 167 f., No. 103.

Web links

Commons : Seligmann Bär Bamberger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. 2007, p. 516.
  2. ^ Carsten Wilke: Country Jews and other scholars. The rabbinical culture of Franconia from the 12th to the 20th century. In: Michael Brenner, Daniela F. Eisenstein (ed.): The Jews in Franconia. Oldenbourg, Munich 2012 (= Studies on Jewish History and Culture in Bavaria. Volume 5), ISBN 978-3-486-70100-5 , pp. 69–94, here: p. 89.
  3. ↑ Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. 2007, p. 516.
  4. ↑ Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. 2007, p. 513 f.
  5. ↑ Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. 2007, pp. 516-519.
  6. ↑ Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews from 1803 to the end of the First World War. 2007, p. 519.
personal data
SURNAME Bamberger, Seligmann Bear
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wurzburg Rav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesenbronn
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1878
Place of death Wurzburg