Moses (Moshe) Sachs (1800 – 5 July 1870) was a Meshullach.

Life

Sachs was born in in the

Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen ( ; ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestine Duchy of Saxe-Gotha ...

. He studied under some of the leading

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

s of the time, among them were Rabbi

Akiva Eger Akiva Eiger (, also spelled Eger; , ), or Akiva Güns (8 November 1761 – 12 October 1837) was a Talmudic scholar, halakhic decisor and leader of European Jewry during the early 19th century. Eiger is considered one of the greatest Talmudic ...

, Rabbi Jacob Lisser and Chacham Sofer. In 1830 he

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

to the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

and is considered the first German to do so in the 19th century. He settled in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and in 1832 married Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Zadok HaLevi Cruiz (considered by locals the "

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

of Jerusalem"). In 1835 he went to

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

as a Meshullach. There he met

Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The fema ...

who was impressed by him and recommended that he meet with Baron

Salomon Mayer von Rothschild Salomon Mayer Freiherr von Rothschild (9 September 1774 – 28 July 1855) was a Frankfurt-born banker in the Austrian Empire and the founder of the Austrian branch of the prominent Rothschild family. Family Born as Salomon Mayer Rothschild in ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Sachs convinced Rothschild and a group of other wealthy Jews to back a program for the settling of Jews as farmers in the Land of Israel under Austrian protection. With the help of

Archduke John of Austria Archduke John of Austria (, ; (or simply ''Nadvojvoda Janez''); 20 January 1782 – 11 May 1859), a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, was an Austrian field marshal and imperial regent (''Reichsverweser'') of the short-lived German Emp ...

the plan was submitted to the Austrian government which in turn had consul Stürmer present it to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. The Ottoman government refused and the plan failed. Sachs remained in Europe until 1839. During this time he visited many communities in order to win support to the productivity plan and studied medicine and astronomy in

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

for six months. Sachs was opposed by the brothers Akiba and

Hirsch Lehren Hirsch Lehren, also known as Tsebi Hirsch Lehren (April 1784, The Hague - September 1853, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Jewish merchant and community worker. Lehren was prominent in the history of the Ḥaluḳḳah in the first half of the nineteenth ce ...

of bankers who controlled the fundraising system in Europe and the distribution of funds to the

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

, the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel. They believed that the purpose of the Yishuv was hastening salvation by prayer and Torah study and thus found productivity dangerous. In 1854 Sachs was a founding member of the first society for the settlement of the Land of Israel. In 1860 he left again to Europe to collect contributions for the Batei Machse established by

Kollel A kollel (also kolel) (, , , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced Torah study, study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features Shiur (Torah), shiurim (lectures) and ...

Holland veDeutschland. He remain there for five years. In 1865 he returned to Jerusalem. He was involved in various public affairs and covered the events of the Yishuv in local and European newspapers. Sachs saw the foundation of

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...

and died in 1870 in

References

*Gelber, N. (1937). Moses Sachs (in Hebrew). Sinai, 1, pp. 568–583. *Eliav, M. (1968). Rabbi Moses Sachs's Travels in the Service of "Batei Machse" (in Hebrew). Sinai 62, pp. 172–188. *Eliav, M. (1971). Love of Zion and the People of Holland and Deutschland (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: United Kibbutz Publishing, pp. 215–228. *Gann, Christoph. ''Moses Sachs – ein jüdischer Pionier aus Dreißigacker'' (1. Teil), in: Hennebergisch-Fränkischer Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch 2012, Kloster Veßra/Meiningen/Münnerstadt 2012, Hennebergisch-Fränkischer Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch 2012, Kloster Veßra/Meiningen/Münnerstadt 2012, S. 121–142. {{Authority control Jews from Ottoman Palestine 19th-century German Jews 1800 births 1870 deaths Shelichei derabonan (rabbis)