- Isaac Breuer
Isaac Breuer (1883–1946) ( _he. יצחק ברויאר) was a Jewish
rabbi in the German Neo-Orthodoxy movement of his maternal grandfatherSamson Raphael Hirsch , and was the first president ofAgudat Israel Workers .Biography
Breuer was born in
Pápa ,Hungary toSalomon Breuer , and lived most of his years inFrankfurt . He attended Hirsch's "Realschule" school, and received rabbinical ordination at age 20 from his own father'syeshivah . He studied law, jurisprudence, and philosophy atMarburg University , and until 1936 practiced law inFrankfort .In 1936 Breuer moved to Jerusalem, organized and became first president of Po'alei Agudat Israel, and represented the Agudah before the Peel and Anglo American Commissions. He believed that Agudism could help prepare Jews to live in their ancestral home. (See below on his Zionism as a form of Agudah.) His five adult children were: Jacob (Bub) Baror, a lawyer who played a role in the Eichmann trial (1915-2008), Mordechai (1917-2007), Ursula (1919-2006, married
Hermann Merkin ), Tzipora (Tzip) Breuer (born 1926) and Simeon Breuer (1922-1943).Breuer died in
Jerusalem in 1946.Zionism
Although Hirsch's neo-Orthodoxy movement had defined itself from the start largely as an opposition to the German Reform movement, Isaac Breuer already regarded the Reform movement of his day as essentially the impotent and dying remnant of the
Haskalah Harv|Biemann|2000. Breuer saw the real enemy of Orthodoxy in both politicalZionism andReligious Zionism , which he considered especially dangerous because it possessed an authentic Jewish instinct and impulse. The goals of the Zionists paralleled the goals of his own Agudah organization in many areas ("reunification of land and nation"), but without the stress which Agudah laid on adherence tohalachah and tradition Harv|Biemann|2000. Indeed, Breuer envisioned a Messianic Torah state in the land of Israel, and could not abide the idea of "reunification of land and nation" coming to pass through the agency of secular Zionist forces in the form of a secular state.Philosophy
Works
* "Judenproblem" (1918), a polemic against the perceived opponents of Orthodoxy, Zionists and Reform Jews.
* "Messiasspuren" (1918)
* "Concepts of Judaism" Levinger, Jacob S. (ed.)
* "Der Neue Kusari"
* "Moriah"
* "Jerusalem: eine historische Erzählung", a metaphor in novella form of what negative consequences might follow from the agenda of ZionistsReferences
*Harvard reference | Surname=Biemann | Given=Asher D. | Authorlink=| Title=Isaac Breuer: Zionist against his will? | Journal=Modern Judaism | Volume=20 | Issue=2 | Year=2000 | Pages=129–146 | URL=.
* David N. Myers. Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought. Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World Series. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003
* Alan L. Mittleman, Between Kant and Kabbalah: An Introduction to Isaac Breuer’s Philosophy of Judaism (SUNY, 1990)
*Alan Mittleman, Two Orthodox Jewish Theories of Rights: Sol Roth and Isaac Breuer - Jewish Political Studies Review Volume 3, Numbers 3-4 (Fall 5752/1991)
* Matthias Morgenstern, From Frankfurt to Jerusalem Isaac Breuer and the History of the Secession Dispute in Modern Jewish Orthodoxy
* Matthias Morgenstern Von Frankfurt nach Jerusalem: Isaac Breuer und die Geschichte des `Austrittsstreits' in der deutsch-jüdischen Orthodoxie Reviewer: Marc B. Shapiro in Journal of Jewish Studies Volume 48, Issue 2, Autumn 1997
* Meir Seidler, "Isaac Breuer's Concept of Law" Jewish Law Association Studies VIII The Jerusalem 1994 Conference VolumeExternal links
* [http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/drbreuer.htm Isaac Breuer's political philosophy (English)]
* [http://www.hagalil.com/judentum/samson-hirsch/breuer.htm Biography of Isaac Breuer in German]
* [http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0498/sedernight1.html Breuer on the meaning of the Passover Seder]
* [http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/yomk/suc.html Breuer on Yom Kippur]
* [http://www.forward.com/articles/she-contained-multitudes Eulogy by his granddaughter for his daughter Ursula Merkin- contains comments on Breuer's life]
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