Nicholas de Lange, “Books and Bookmen: The Cambridge Teachers of Rabbinics, 1866–1971,” Jewish Historical Studies, vol. 44 (2012): 139–163 (original) (raw)
The Gang of Five: The Impact of Five German Rabbinic Students on Twentieth Century Reform Judaism
"The Gang of Five" is a sequel to my biography, "A Brand Plucked from the Fire." This new book tells the story of how he and four other German rabbinic students made the difficult transition from Nazi Germany to America to become major leaders in 20th century Reform Judaism. "The Gang of Five" tells the story of how W. Gunther Plaut, Wolli Kaelter, Alfred Wolf, and Leo Lichtenberg, and Herman Schaalman became leaders in Reform Judaism and offers an assessment of their contributions to its development in the second half of the 20th century. The book pays tribute to and ensures that the contributions of these rabbis would not be neglected or forgotten. The story of these amazing rabbis began in late August 1935 when five rabbinic students left their homeland to travel to an unknown land and to new experiences they had never dreamed of. Their departure was an appointment with destiny. For “The Gang of Five,” as they came to be known by their Hebrew Union College student colleagues, the experience of coming to America turned out to be transformative not only for them but for American Reform Judaism. In the last half of the 20th century, they helped shape the development of Reform Judaism. Their contributions helped write the history of 20th century Reform Judaism. Karl Richter wrote: “Over the years, Leo Lichtenberg, Wolli Kaelter, Herman Schaalman, W. Gunther Plaut, and Alfred Wolf would have a remarkable impact, attaining prominence as rabbis, scholars, and community leaders.” At the same time, they, too, were radically transformed by their training as Reform rabbis, a transformation that allowed them to become part of the Reform establishment as well as agents of change.
Kovno & Oxford: Israel Brodie & his rabbinical career
The 2008 Rabbi LA Falk Memorial Lecture delivered by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple, AO, RFD, at the Great Synagogue, Sydney Rabbi Brodie presided over the British chief rabbinate for seventeen eventful years. It was not an easy time. The Jewish world had to come to terms with the lingering agony of the Holocaust and the excitement of the emergence of Israel. Anglo-Jewry itself was changing. New situations, challenges and movements constantly arose to ruffle the smooth stability of the community. How he handled the challenges will be addressed later in this paper, but there was never any doubt on the personal level that whilst urbane, august and ecclesiastical, he was also warm, passionate and concerned for people and their feelings. Every segment of the community believed, as did the Australians, that the Chief was one of them. The grand dukes were content to have a real Englishman as Chief Rabbi. The communal power-wielders were relieved to have a Chief who was a gentleman and diplomat. The Zionists felt assured by his love for Zion. The ex-service people remembered how well he had cared for his troops. The ministers had a warm feeling for a good colleague who had always been a good friend. The mighty Dayan Abramsky and Sir Robert Waley Cohen, miles apart in religious standards, were united in their respect and support for the Chief.
The European history of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism is mostly a story of misunderstanding and of a lack of mutual knowledge and respect in everyday life. This is true of academic life too which, for the most part, Jewish students were neither allowed to join nor actively participate in until the 19th century. A notable exception was the study of medicine in Renaissance Italy and the early modern period. As a positive element in this complicated relationship, I would also like to emphasize that Protestant academies in the 19 th century were sometimes more 'tolerant' than the negative stereotype generally assumed. My present paper will support this by revealing some forgotten details of academic life at the University of Halle where Wilhelm Gesenius was professor and where a relatively large number of rabbinical candidates became doctores philosophiae.
I lt is really an honor to speak on this occasion, and to return to the National Foundation. This is my own 30th year as a Jewish academic, having fin ished my doctorate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1974. I spent close to ten years at the University of Maryland, a large public university. I then was at Yale, and it is wonderful to see all my former colleagues from this institution who are here this evening And then I came to the University of Pennsylvania, where I've had the privilege during the past ten years of directing an institute for advanced study in Jewish civilization, which has already graduat ed-if we can speak of them graduating our programover 250 scholars. They come to study one area of Jewish learning; they hold weekly seminars; and they produce at the end of the year a book as well as a new collective vision of Jewish learning. From the prospective of sitting in the seat of the directorship of this pro gram, I've had the wonderful honor and opportunity of seeing many scholars, young/old from all over the world, and with this 1 bring a certain perspective, I hope, to these personal observations. I would love to begin by recognizing my professional ancestors. If only Leopold Zunz, Morits Steinschneider or David Kaufmann were alive-I could mention many other names-but those are the big three for me of the 19th Century.
B"H Rabbi Elijah of Oxford: MOST ILLUSTRIOUS JEW OF ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES
was born around 1220 into one of the most distinguished Jewish families of the Middle Ages. His nephew, Moses ben Jacob, who experienced the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, documented his family tree on the pages of a Siddur (prayer book) that he brought with him from England. According to this family tree, the family was a descendant of Rabbi Shimon ben Isaac Hagadol (the great) of Mainz (c. 950-1020), whose poems (piyutim) were included in the Hebrew prayer book. 3 The first to settle in England was Moses of Bristol ben Isaac who subsequently moved to Oxford where he died around 1184. Moses of Bristol and his wife Belaset or Rachel had three sons: Shimon, Isaac and Yom Tov, author of Sefer Hatenaim (the Book of Conditions), a text on Jewish law and grammar. Rabbi Yom Tov had a son Moses (d. 1268) who was a great rabbinic scholar, quoted among the works of Tosafists, 4 and author of Sefer Hatamim vehaneginot, an important work on Biblical punctuation and accentuation. Reflecting his stature, Moses, grandson of Moses of Bristol, is referred to in the records as Magister Mosseus of London. Moses married Antera daughter (fil') of Jacob, sister of Tosafist Rabbi Eljah of York, 5 who was killed in the massacre in York in 1190. Together they had six sons: 1. Rabbi Elias or Elijah, the subject of this essay 2. Jacob (d. 1277), who is known for selling a property in Oxford to Walter de Merton, which became the nucleus of the current day Merton College. 3. Deulecresse (d. 1269), whose son was the last Archpresbyter of English Jewry. 4. Rabbi Berachiah or Benedict of Lincoln, a prominent rabbi whose Jewish legal rulings are quoted in rabbinical works. 6 He was arrested as part of the blood libel relating to the death of Hugh of Lincoln in 1255 but subsequently released after the intervention of the mother of Hugh who declared him innocent. 5. Vives (d. 1274). 6. Hagin (d. 1280) who lived in Lincoln and in 1257 was appointed Archpresbyter of English Jewry. Life Elijah was born around 1200 7 in Oxford or London and died in 1284. He is known in Hebrew as Rabeinu Elijah Menachem and in secular records as Magister Elias fil' Magistri Mossei of London. He became one of the greatest Talmudists and legalist in medieval England before the expulsion, having studied under the tutelage of three prominent teachers: his father Rabbi Moses ben Yom Tov, Rabbi Benjamin of Canterbury (Cambridge?) 8 and outstanding French Tosafist Rabbi Samson ben Avraham of Sens (c. 1150-c.1230), who was among the 300 French and English Jews who immigrated to Israel in 1211 and a known opponent of Maimonides. A manuscript copy of his work on the Talmud tractate Bechorot is in the Bodleian library. 9 Elijah's father Moses, grandfather Yom Tov and great grandfather Moses of Bristol all lived and had prominent residences in the Oxford Jewry around what is today called St Aldates.
Englishmen of the Jewish Persuasion
2002
The peculiar political and social ambience of the 1930s, so perfectly captured in Auden’s brief lines, had its inevitable influence on Britain’s already highly integrated Jewish community. Anxieties about unemployment, fascism, appeasement — all affected the quality and conduct of Jewish communal life, and it is perhaps hardly surprising that in a decade of such timorous leadership at the national level, the Jewish lions abandoned their roaring in favour of the more discreet murmuring which formed the language of political discourse during the period. What is truly surprising is the degree of confidence and determination evinced by the Anglo-Jewish leadership, notwithstanding its cautious demeanour. Its valour was no less real for being cloaked in discretion.