Background
Geiger was born in Frankfurt, Germany on May 24, 1810.
Geiger was born in Frankfurt, Germany on May 24, 1810.
Born in Frankfurt to a distinguished family, he received an excellent education, both rabbinical and secular, obtaining a doctorate from Bonn University for a thesis on what Mohammed took from Judaism.
From 1832 to 1838 he was rabbi in Wiesbaden, where he achieved a reputation by his liberal reforms and objections to traditional rabbinic practices, which he saw as having lost their validity and lacking esthetic form.
In 1837 he called a conference of Reform rabbis in Wiesbaden to discuss synagogue reform. Believing that the scientific study of Judaism ( Wissenschaft des Judentums) was required to effect both political and religious changes, he founded the journal Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für jüdische Theologie.
In 1838 he was invited to Breslau as dayyan (religious judge) and assistant rabbi, but his inauguration was deferred for two years due to the objections of the Orthodox rabbi, Solomon Tiktin. Eventually he was empowered to introduce reforms and remained in Breslau until 1863. The Reform rabbinical conference of 1846 was held in Breslau and Geiger was a moving spirit.
During this period, he was not only a leader of the Reform movement but wrote major works of Jewish scholarship. He helped to inspire the foundation of the Breslau Theological Seminary, but was disappointed when the less Reform-minded Zacharias Frankel was appointed its first head. In 1863 he moved to Frankfurt to serve as rabbi there and from 1870 was in Berlin as Reform rabbi and as head of the newly established Liberal rabbinical seminary (the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums), which he directed until his death.
Geiger criticized traditional Judaism as archaic and for its national character as expressed in many laws and rituals. In 1854 he published a prayer book that omitted any reference to angeis, the resurrection of the dead, the chosenness of the Jewish people, the restoration of the Temple and the sacrificial system, and the return to Zion.
The innovations he introduced included choral singing, the confirmation ceremony, and sermons in the vernacular. In later life, his views became less extreme and, for example, he reinstated second days of festivals, which he had previously rejected. His public views were also more moderate than his private opinions; he never publicly advocated the abolition of the dietary laws or circumcision, although privately he accepted neither. Judaism, he held, must divest itself of its particularism and become a uni versalistic faith, a religion of humanity. At the same time as much tradition as possible should be retained for the sake of continuity.
His scholarly work was extensive and he mastered all aspects of Jewish studies. Seeking to integrate Judaism into Western culture, he applied modern scientific approaches to many branches of scholarship. Among the fields in which he made especially significant contributions were Jewish relations to Christianity and Islam, Bible, rabbinical law, Jewish history, religion, and literature.
Quotations:
ABRAHAM GEIGER ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN JUDAISM
From now on let there be no distinction between duties for men and women, unless flowing from the natural laws, governing the sexes; no assumption of the spiritual minority of woman, as though she were incapable of grasping the deep things in religion; no institution of the public service, either in form or content, which shuts the doors of the temple in the face of women; no degradation of woman in the form of the marriage service, and no application of fetters which may destroy woman’s happiness. Then will the Jewish girl and the Jewish woman, conscious of the significance of our faith, become fervently attached to it, and our whole religious life will profit from the beneficial influence which feminine hearts will bestow on it.