Background

David Einhorn, son of Maier and Karoline Einhorn, was born in Dispeck, Bavaria.

Education

He received a traditionally intensive Jewish education in the school of the village of his birth and in the Talmudic Academy of Furth.

Career

In 1851 he left Germany for Pesth, Hungary.

There a reactionary government, confusing religious with political liberalism, closed his temple two months after he had taken office. There being little prospect in Europe for a rabbi of his radical religious ideas, he turned his eyes to the United States. After four years of waiting, during which he published his system of Jewish theology, Das Prinsip des Mosaismus und dessen Verhaeltnis sum Heidenthum und Rabbinischen Judenthum (Leipzig, 1854), he sailed for America in 1855, to become the religious leader of the Har Sinai Synagogue in Baltimore. There his unwavering moral courage and loyalty to the truth as he saw it were notably shown in his attacks on slavery. Though these were launched in German, a language which he regarded as the official tongue of reform Judaism in America, they drew down on him the angry resentment of some of his fellow citizens, and a few nights after April 19, 1861, the night of the Baltimore riot, he had to flee the city under guard to avoid attack from the mob. His congregation would have welcomed him back on condition that he did not refer in the pulpit to the subject of slavery, but he refused all compromise and settled in Philadelphia, where he was soon elected rabbi of Keneseth Israel Congregation. In 1866 he was called to New York, as minister of Congregation Adath Jeshurun, merged in 1874 with an orthodox congregation under the new name of Congregation Beth El, where he officiated until he retired from active service in July 1879. Four months later he died. In 1856 he published Olath Tamid, a reform modification of the traditional Jewish prayer book, with a German translation. This subsequently became the basis of the Union Prayer Book, the official liturgy of reform Judaism in America. Ten years later, in Philadelphia, he published Ner Tamid, Die Lehre des Judenthums dar gestellt für Schule und Haus. A collected volume of his sermons was published in 1880 by his son-inlaw, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler.

Achievements

• His literary output in America was considerable. In 1856 he founded Sinai, a monthly German magazine devoted to reform Judaism. Through this organ he waged vigorous controversy with some of his colleagues, both orthodox and reform. He was a leading figure at the Philadelphia Conference of Reform Rabbis in 1869 and at several Jewish Reform conferences in Germany.

Works

More photos

• book

  • David Einhorn, memorial volume: selected sermons and addresses

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Xenophanes: Ein Beitrag Zur Kritik Der Grundlagen Der Bisherigen Philosophiegeschichte (German Edition)

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • Abschiedspredigt: gehalten am 12. juli 1879 im Tempel der Beth-El-gemeinde (German Edition)

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • Das Princep des Mosaismus

    (Das Princep des Mosaismus und dessen Verhältnisszum Heide...)

  • Bestandige Leuchte: Die Lehre Des Judenthums, Dargestellt Fur Schule Und Haus (1866) (German Edition)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Dr. David Einhorn's Olat Tamid: Book of Prayers for Jewish Congregations - Primary Source Edition

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Seventh Candle and Other Folk Tales of Eastern Europe

    (Book by Einhorn, David)

  • Morgen-Gottesdienst fuer den Schabbat: Fuer juedische Reformgemeinden (German Edition)

    (Rabbiner Dr. David Einhorn schuf ein klassisches Gebetbuc...)

  • book

  • Tsu a idisher ?okh?er: lider (Yiddish Edition)

Religion

After an abrupt plunge from the circumscribed, compact, and medieval scholastic world into the comparative liberalism of the Universities of Erlangen, Wurzburg, and Munich, he emerged a religious radical.

When he was appointed rabbi in 1842, he found himself in constant opposition to the opinions and practises of the orthodox majority of his flock.

Politics

His stand against slavery led to his election as an honorary member of the Union League Club of Philadelphia.

Views

As his writings consistently show, he was essentially a theologian, forthright and unyielding in the opinions which he expressed with ardent eloquence.

His appreciation of Judaism was rationalizing rather than romantic, universal rather than national.

By his forceful application of this ideology in the domain of Judaism, David Einhorn became the leading theologian of the reform Judaism of his generation in the United States.

Quotations: In 1856 he founded Sinai, a monthly German magazine devoted to reform Judaism. He issued this for seven years until, as he wrote, “it died in the battle against slavery. ”

Membership

rabbi of Keneseth Israel Congregation

honorary member of the Union League Club of Philadelphia

merged in 1874 with an orthodox congregation under the new name of Congregation Beth El

leading figure at the Philadelphia Conference of Reform Rabbis in 1869 and at several Jewish Reform conferences in Germany.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  There his unwavering moral courage and loyalty to the truth as he saw it were notably shown in his attacks on slavery.
  
  Through this organ he waged vigorous controversy with some of his colleagues, both orthodox and reform.

Connections

In 1844 Einhorn married Julie Flenrietta Ochs, of a prominent family in Kreuznach.

Father:

Maier Einhorn

Mother:

Karoline Einhorn

Wife:

Julie Flenrietta Ochs

son-inlaw:

Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler