Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

בית המדרש לרבנים בברלין‎
Berlin Rabbinical Seminary, 25 years anniversary of work, 1898.
Established	October 10, 1873 (1873-22-10)
Founder	Israel Hildesheimer
Affiliation	Orthodox Judaism
Location	Berlin , Germany 52°31′36.9″N 13°23′36.8″E / 52.526917°N 13.393556°E / 52.526917; 13.393556
Website	rabbinerseminar.de

The Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary (officially in German: Rabbinerseminar für das orthodoxe Judenthum in Berlin until 1880, thereafter Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin; in Hebrew: בית המדרש לרבנים בברלין, Bet ha-midrash le-Rabanim be-Berlin) was founded in Berlin on 22 October 1873 by Rabbi Dr. Israel Hildesheimer for the training of rabbis in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism.

History

In accepting the call as the first rabbi of the new Berlin Orthodox congregation, the Israelite Synagogal Congregation of Adass Yisroel (

By this time, the attendance had greatly increased, and owing to the large number of pupils at the institution it became necessary to employ a new teacher; accordingly in 1895 Dr. J. Wohlgemuth, a former pupil, was appointed. After the death of the founder, Dr. Hildesheimer, on 12 June 1899, Rabbi

The conditions for admission to the seminary included the following: (1) the candidate had to prove by examination that he was able to understand a moderately difficult Talmudic text, Rashi and the Tosafot; (2) as regards the secular sciences he had either to have a certificate of graduation from a classical Gymnasium or to be able to show that he was fitted for the graduating class of such a Gymnasium.

At the end of the course, pupils who left the institution as qualified rabbis had passed special examinations showing that aside from their attainments in the various branches of Jewish learning they were sufficiently familiar with the ritual codices to decide correctly on ritual and religio-legal questions.^[1] See Yeshiva § Jewish law, Rabbi § Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Judaism and Halakha § Codes of Jewish law.

Reestablishment

In 2009, the Seminary was reestablished with the blessing of Professor Dr. Meir Hildesheimer and Rabbi Azaria Hildesheimer, great grandsons of the founder, under the name Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin. The contemporary Seminary is funded by the

The course of study is four years, and is divided into two major and one minor areas of study. The major areas are classical Talmud and Halacha, and a state accredited degree in social work offered by the University of Applied Sciences - Erfurt. The minor area includes professional qualifications such as pastoral care, bereavement counseling, and public speaking, as well as intellectual history and constitutional law.

In 2013, the Seminary established an affiliate institution in partnership with the Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig, the Institute for Traditional Liturgy, to train both rabbinical students and communal lay leaders to lead prayer services in accordance with halachic practice and normative ritual tradition; see

• 1873–1899 - Dr. Azriel Hildesheimer
• 1899–1920 - Dr. David Zvi Hoffmann
• 1920–1924 - Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan
• 1924–1938 - Dr. Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg
• 2009–2022 - Rabbi Chanoch Ehrentreu
• 2022-present - Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Farbstein

Teachers

• Dr. Jacob Barth, lecturer for Hebrew language
• Dr. Abraham Berliner (1833–1915), lecturer for Jewish history and literature
• Dr. Solomon Cohn, lecturer for theoretic and practical homiletics
• Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer, lecturer in Jewish history and geography of Palestine
• Dr. Joseph Wohlgemuth (1867–1942)

Notable alumni

Among the Seminary's graduates were:

• Prof. Dr.
  Institute of Jewish Studies at University College London, and longtime professor at Brandeis University
• Dr. Eduard Baneth (1855–1930), lecturer at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums ("Institute for the Study of the Science of Judaism") at Berlin^[1]
• Dr. Eliezer Berkovits (1908–1992), rabbi, theologian and author
• Zlatipol-Chortkov
• Haim-Moshe Shapira (1902–1970), signatory of Israel's declaration of independence, minister in 1948–1970
• Dr. Yosef Burg (1909–1999), Rabbi, Israeli politician, among others Israeli Minister of Health, Minister of Postal Services, Minister of Welfare, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister without Portfolio and Minister of Religious Affairs.
• Dr. Joseph Zvi Carlebach (1883–1942), Chief Rabbi of Lübeck, Altona and Hamburg
• Josef Hirsch Dunner (1913–2007), Chief Rabbi of East Prussia, head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, European President of Agudath Israel
• Prof. Dr. Israel Friedlander (1876–1920), professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York^[1]
• Dr. David Herzog, lecturer at the
  University of Prague^[1]
• Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer, lecturer in Jewish history of the Seminary
• Prof. Dr.
  Jews' College, London, translator of the Kuzari
  into English
• Dr. David Zvi Hoffmann (1843–1921) Rector of the Seminary (successor of Hildesheimer)
• Dr. Jacob Horowitz, lecturer at the
  University of Berlin^[1]
• Dr. Leo Jung (1892–1987), rabbi and influential figure of American Orthodox Judaism
• Rabbi Philip Klein (1849–1926) rabbi in Libau and New York City
• Prof. Jacob Zallel Lauterbach Talmudic scholar and Reform rabbi.
• Prof. Dr. Alexander Marx (1878–1953), professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York^[1]
• Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe (1914–2005), rabbi and mashgiach of Yeshivas Be'er Yaakov and Lakewood yeshiva in Israel.
• Rabbi Dr. David Ochs, Chief Rabbi of Leipzig, Tel Aviv, and founder of Israel's religious public schools. https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/holocaust-a-photograph-of-rabbi-david-ochs-the-ra-55-c-b0e4386bff
• Rabbi
  Lubavitcher Rebbe, was a student in the 1920s while he was living in Berlin, Germany.^[3]
• Dr. Elieser Berlinger (1904–1985), rabbi in Schönlanke (Germany), rabbi in Malmö (Sweden), chief rabbi of Helsinki (Finland), chief rabbi of Utrecht (Holland)
• Rabbi Dr. Arthur Cohn (Asher Michoel), rabbi of Basel, Switzerland from 1885–1926[4]

References

• Shapiro, Marc B. (2002), Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884–1966,
  ISBN 978-1874774914
  .
• Ellenson, David Henry (1990), Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press,
  ISBN 0-8173-0485-1

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin (Esriel Hildesheimer).

• Website of the Yeshiva, rabbinerseminar.de
• Bookstamp of the Bet ha-midrash le-Rabanim be-Berlin Bibliothek (Rare Books of the Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies, Washington University)