Israel Jacobson
Israel Jacobson ( born October 17, 1768 in Halberstadt, † September 14, 1828 in Berlin) was a Jewish merchant and banker. He is regarded as the true founder of Reform Judaism in Germany.
- 2.1 Israel Jacobson Price
- 2.2 plaque
Life and work
Jacobson was born in 1768 as son of the merchant and superintendent of the Jewish community in Halberstadt Israel Jacob ( 1729-1803 ). He received an orthodox Jewish education, according to the wish of his father, he should become a rabbi. At the age of 19 he married Minna Samson (December 22, 1767 - February 4, 1819 ), the daughter of Brunswick court bankers ( " chamber Agent " ) Heart Samson ( 1738-1794 ). After the death of his father- Jacobson took over both its businesses as well as its role as rabbi of the country Brunswick Weser district.
Jacobson was a very successful banker and soon expanded its activities beyond the borders of the Duchy of Braunschweig out of court agent as Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt city of commerce and Mecklenburg- schweriner Fiscal Council. He became friends with Charles II William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel. After the founding of the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon, he has also provided that State high advances. Since this could not repay the loans, Jacobson was compensated with goods resolved monasteries and branches of the Teutonic Order.
First Jewish reform school and synagogue
In the self-study Jacobson had dealt with Enlightenment writings of Moses Mendelssohn, among other things. As Landrabbiner the Weser district he was confronted with the sorry state of the Jewish school system and built in 1801 in Seesen against the resistance of the local Christian population a school that 1804 already counted 46 Jewish students. 1805 also Christian children were taken that were taught together with the Jewish with free board and lodging. The Jacobson school thus became the first school founded by Jews simultaneous Germany. 1810 Jacobson was built on the school grounds a synagogue that was equipping with an organ, which was a novelty within Judaism. In addition to Hebrew prayers he led a German speaking prayers and sermons.
Political action
Jacobson advocated the elimination of the Jews discriminatory provisions one, but also endeavored to promote understanding between Jews and Christians and supported the needy both denominations. His influence, it is thanks to them that the body of customs, a centuries-old Jewish tax, 1803 Duke of brunswick - Lüneburg Principality of Wolfenbüttel was abolished. In 1804 he received the full subjects of rights, the 1805 urban civil rights and in 1807 an honorary doctorate from the University of Helmstedt. Its use was initially Brunswick and bathing, but especially then the Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1806 he sent a memorandum to enhance the Jewish educational system to the Emperor Napoleon.
As in the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1808, the Jewish religious community (about 19,000 people) was legally equivalent to the Christian churches, also received it - similar to the churches of the Reformation - an Israelite Consistory as in the French countries as a central supervisory and administrative authority. Israel Jacobson was its president. Here he was able to put his ideas to an enlightened, assimilated Jews in political practice. He had moved into the residence Kassel. As President of the Jewish Consistory, he opened a house of prayer in Kassel, the rite was that in Seesen similar, and promoted the establishment of a seminary for the training of Jewish teachers.
In addition, he was elected with 135 votes out of 165 votes as representative of the merchants and manufacturers of the Oker departments in the imperial estates, the parliament of the Kingdom of Westphalia. Even he was in 1812 appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown of Westphalia.
The French writer Stendhal (1783-1842), who worked as an administrative officer in Brunswick during the years 1806 to 1808, concluded on 14 January 1808 in a diary entry about Jacobson: " Of all my acquaintances Brunswick has only one really mind, namely Jacobson "
Retirement
After the fall of Jérôme Bonaparte Jacobson lived since 1813 in Berlin and was a member of the Society of Friends. Here he was part of the orthodoxy strong hostility. In the spring of 1815, he taught in his living quarters, a private synagogue according to the Reformed rite. Towards the end of the synagogue was in the house of the sugar producers and bankers Jacob Herz Beer, father of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, laid. Preachers have included Eduard Kley, Leopold Zunz and Isaac Levin Auerbach. But the Prussian government, which remembered Jacobson's French sympathies and in which Orthodox Jews also complained under said 1823 the church services.
After the death of his first wife married Israel Jacobson Jeanette Leffmann (1801-1874) from a Hanoverian banking family. He died in 1828 in Berlin and was buried in the Jewish cemetery on the beautiful Allee.
Honors
Israel Jacobson Price
Since 2001, the Israel - Jacobson Prize of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany awards. The undoped prize is awarded usually every two years to honor outstanding personalities of Liberal Judaism, which have made outstanding contributions in the spirit of Israel Jacobson to a living Judaism of modernity.
Winners:
- 2001 Walter Homolka, Rabbi
- 2003 Uri Regev, Rabbi
- 2005 Walter Jacob, rabbi
- 2007 Henry G. Brandt, Rabbi; Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich, Judaic scholar and historian; William Wolff, chief rabbi
- 2010 Ruth Cohen, Honorary President of the European Union for Progressive Judaism
- 2012 Leo Hepner, former Chairman of the European Union for Progressive Judaism; Jan millstone, former chairman of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany
Plaque
In July 2010 was in Berlin unveiled a donated by the City Seesen plaque in honor Jacobson at the place of Jacobson's former residence.
Works
- Speech of the President Jacobson at 8 Nissan 5572 work done by him Sabbath in the local synagogue Confirmation: besides d religious confession of confirmation. Messner, Kassel 1812., Digitized