Introduction: German Rabbis Abroad as Cultural Agents?

Abstract

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment movement, emerged in Germany to reconcile science and rationalism with Judaism. Such a programme was considered a prerequisite for a rapprochement between Jews and Gentiles. The Maskilim, the Jewish Enlighteners, regarded it as absolutely necessary to adapt Jewish life to modernity, in order to preserve Judaism. One of the main goals of the Haskalah programme, which portended a renunciation of the traditional dominance of religious education, was the acquisition and dissemination of secular knowledge. German Jews increasingly attended common schools or established their own modern educational institutions where secular knowledge was imparted, while the teaching of religious subjects had lost much of its earlier significance. Consequently, religion ceased to dominate all spheres of life and became merely a part of it. In light of the waning influence of religious practice at the beginning of the nineteenth century, some German Jews imbued with the ideas of the Haskalah decided to reform the liturgy of the synagogue, as well as certain religious customs. Judaism was to be made more attractive to a younger generation of Jews. While the laity initiated such reforms, younger rabbis, already educated in the ‘spirit of the times’, soon furthered the goal of purification of religion. Following the example of the Protestant churches, Jewish religious reformers aimed at modernisation through the aestheticisation of the synagogue service. Those changes encompassed the introduction of synagogue ordinances, choirs, sermons in German, clerical garb for rabbis and preachers, organ accompaniment (at least partially), the abridgement of the prayer book and the abandonment of certain customs which were regarded as outmoded or not compatible with modern