Rabbi Dr. Bernard Drachman (June 27, 1861, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– March 12, 1945 in New York City) was a leader of

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Biography

Drachman was born to parents who were immigrants from Galicia and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. After studying in a Hebrew preparatory school, Drachman earned a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from Columbia College. He earned a scholarship at the

Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (official name: ) was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. The seminary, at what is now an empty building plot (used as a ...

where he received his rabbinic ordination. He also earned a PhD from the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. In 1890, Drachman began serving as rabbi in the

Park East Synagogue Park East Synagogue is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. Building The building was built in 1889–1890. The architects were Schneider and Herter, who designed numerous tenements on New York's Lower East Side as ...

, where he led for the next fifty-five years. Drachman was president of the Orthodox Union and professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He translated

Samson Raphael Hirsch Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the '' Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', hi ...

's The Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel into English. This was ironic as the works of

Zecharias Frankel Zecharias Frankel, also known as Zacharias Frankel (30 September 1801 – 13 February 1875) was a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague and died in Breslau. He was the foun ...

of Breslau, a man Drachman considered an important Orthodox leader had been condemned by Hirsch as heretical. Historically, Frankel is considered the founder or at least a forerunner of Conservative Judaism.

References

* Goldman, Yosef. '' Hebrew Printing in America, 1735-1926, A History and Annotated Bibliography'' (YGBooks 2006). *Levine, Yitzchak. ''A Forgotten Champion of American Orthodoxy''. Accessed July 21, 2007.

External links

* * 1861 births 1945 deaths Burials at Mount Zion Cemetery (New York City) Columbia College (New York) alumni German–English translators Heidelberg University alumni Jewish Theological Seminary of America people Orthodox rabbis from New York City American people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century American rabbis {{US-rabbi-stub