Lazare Isidor

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An 1888 engraving of Isidor

Lazare Isidor (French pronunciation:

chief rabbi of the Israelite Central Consistory of France
during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Early career

Isidor served as chief rabbi of Paris from 1847 until 1867.[1]

During this period, he was a supporter of Jewish emancipation and the integration of his people into French society: he stated that "'we have shown that we were worthy of liberty, worthy of the title of citizen, and that it was possible to be at once a Jew and a Frenchman'".[2]

Chief Rabbi of France

Isidor was elected chief rabbi of France in 1867 and remained in the position until his death.[3]: 400  Isidor was succeeded by Zadoc Kahn, who had become chief rabbi of Paris following his election to the higher post.[4]

Following the 1871 annexation of

Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War, France lost around forty separate rabbinates in the area, resulting in a large number of unemployed rabbis throughout the country. Isidor secured permission for the foundation of rabbinates across France to replace these missing communities: the new positions were combined with that of the hazzan due to how "unimportant" the towns were seen as being. However, most of these new rabbinates eventually decided to split the role of rabbi and hazzan again.[3]
: 403–4 

Isidore was responsible for adapting the prayer in the memory of the dead which occurred at the start of Mincha on Yom Kippur. His traditional prayer was adopted by rabbis across France and "acquired exceptional importance".[3]: 418–9  Another widely used prayer of his was composed for funeral services.[3]: 420  Many of the prayers edited by Isidor were translated into French and departed from the original Hebrew texts.[3]: 423 

In 1882, he gave permission for Henry Joseph, an English businessman, to become chief rabbi of Argentina.[5]

Other work

In 1875, Isidor became president of Léon de Rosny's Société d'ethnographie (Ethnographic Society).[6]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 3622458
    . Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  2. S2CID 55961922
    . Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  3. ^
    JSTOR 1450008
    . Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  4. ISBN 978-0-8276-1857-2
    . Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  5. JSTOR 4466623
    . Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  6. S2CID 143537665
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lazare_Isidor&oldid=1183205831"