Abraham Rice

Abraham Joseph Reiss, also Rice, 1840 Abraham Rice ( * 1802 in Gochscheim, Lower Franconia, † October 29, 1862 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA ) was a German Talmudic scholar, the first rabbi officially used in the U.S. and spiritual leader of the American Jews.

Life

He was the son of Meir Reiss, his sister, was flower Reiss. Reiss had to limp for life after an accident as a toddler. At the time of his birth there were Gochscheim an Orthodox Jewish Community with about 150 members. In addition to a synagogue was a Jewish school and a mikveh in Judenhof. According to orthodox Reiss also was raised. He received his more orthodox embossing at the Würzburg yeshivah with Chief Rabbi Abraham Bing, and later studied at the yeshiva in Fürth at Rabbi Wolf Hamburg. As a 30 -year-old Reiss already taught himself as a professor of Talmud at the Yeshiva in Zell am Main.

There he also met Rosalie light (1812-1878), the daughter of Shmuel ( Samuel ) Halevi light, whom he married in 1835. Colleagues and supporters persuaded Reiss eventually emigrate to America to help there as the first officially appointed chief rabbi in the construction of Israel's Jewish communities. Because the Jewish population of just 1825-1860 grew up in the United States very quickly from only 6,000 to over 150,000 residents.

After a two- month journey aboard until the year before ( 1839) built SS Sir Isaac Newton with arrival on July 25, 1840 in New York City - his sister flower had accompanied the couple - Reiss found in his own words there " chaotic conditions " before. Uneducated had " the rabbinic cap on his head ," without ever having studied the Talmud. Since he was not accepted by the New York Jews, he wanted to build a church in Newport (Rhode Iceland ), but he failed there too soon. Back in New York he met on the Germans Aaron little path, the Chairman of the Congregation Nidchei Yisroel in Baltimore was. Little path invited him to become a rabbi in Baltimore. The local community of the Jews at that time had 600 members. End of August 1840 when Abraham Reiss met Rice in Baltimore one. In 1845 he founded a Jewish school, one of the first in America.

According to its strict orthodox training he fought vehemently against the emerging liberal Judaism and therefore was heavily criticized by his parishioners. He took action against Jews who violated the laws of the Sabbath, and held equally as strong as the traditional prayer ritual at traditional funeral rituals. At his former teacher Wolf Hamburg he wrote to Germany: " The religious life in this country is on the ground. Most people do not eat kosher food and publicly break the Sabbath. I seriously wonder whether it should be allowed at all, as a Jew to live in this country. "

He alienated increasingly from his parishioners. A clear sign of this was that Moses Hutzler finally founded in May 1842 in his home with reform- minded Jews to Har Sinai club modeled after the Hamburg Temple Association, its own worship services held in the house and in 1855 David Einhorn even hired its own rabbi.

Reiss finally looked around for eight years (1849 ) forced to give up his position as rabbi. However, he founded his own strict orthodox prayer group. For their own livelihood, he worked as dry goods and grocer. Through its regular publications in the Jewish magazine The Occident, the first Jewish periodical in the United States, his name was, however, known in Jewish circles of the USA. As spiritual leader of American Jews he had often to clarify legal issues in terms of halacha and founded a Beth Din. At that time ( 1850) included, in addition wife Rosalie the children Caroline ( 3), Fanny (6) Sarah (20) and adopted daughter Caroline (20 ) to his household, others had died in infancy.

In 1862 he was appointed a second time by his former congregation as a rabbi, but only five months after he took office Reiss died of a heart attack. His grave in the Jewish cemetery in Baltimore is greatly sought today after 150 years of Orthodox Jews. His written heritage is now archived in the Abraham Rice Collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York City.

In 1871, the municipality Nidchei Yisroel closed definitively in the reform Judaism. Reiss ' wife Rosalie lived until 1878, and received a pension of $ 300 per year. On March 15, 2010, 50 descendants of the couple met in Baltimore in the Jewish Museum of Maryland, to commemorate the famous rabbi.

Publications (selection)

• The Messiah, in: The Occident, September 1843 (online)