Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
– 1976) was a
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 ...
and 20th-century liberal
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
.
Life
Maybaum was born in Vienna in 1897. He studied in Berlin at the
Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, or Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, was a rabbinical seminary established in Berlin in 1872 and closed down by the Nazi government of Germany in 1942. Upon the order of the government, the name ...
, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1926. He took rabbinic posts in Bingen,
Frankfurt an der Oder
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
and
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. He was a disciple of
Franz Rosenzweig
Franz Rosenzweig (, ; 25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator.
Early life and education
Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany, to an affluent, minimally observant Jewish family. His f ...
.
In 1935 he was arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
, spending six weeks in prison before being released. Leaving Germany in 1938, Maybaum was given work in the
United Synagogue
The United Synagogue (US) is a union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations (including 7 affiliates and 1 associate, ), comprising 40,000 members, it is the largest ...
by the British Chief Rabbi,
Joseph Hertz
Joseph Herman Hertz (25 September 1872 – 14 January 1946) was a British Rabbi and biblical scholar. He held the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 until his death in 1946, in a period encompassing both world wars and the ...
. His mother and sisters were killed in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
homiletics
In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...
and theology at
Leo Baeck College
Leo Baeck College is a privately funded rabbinical seminary and centre for the training of teachers in Jewish education. Based now at the Sternberg Centre, East End Road, Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet, it was founded by Werner ...
. He was also active in inter-religious dialogue. His students include
Nicholas de Lange
Nicholas Robert Michael de Lange (born 7 August 1944) is a British Reform rabbi and historian. He is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Academic and literary career
Nicholas de Lange is an emeritus fellow at ...
.
Holocaust theology
Maybaum wrote many reflections on
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
,
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...
,
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
and
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
. He also wrote on Islam. He is most frequently remembered for his controversial view in ''The Face of God After Auschwitz'' (1965) that the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust was vicarious
atonement
Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...
for the
sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, ...
s of the rest of the world. He was connecting the Jewish people to the figure of the "
suffering servant
Isaiah 53 is the fifty-third chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah and is one of the Nevi'im. Chapters 40 through 55 ar ...
" of
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "th ...
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
). In the same work he employed Christian imagery, speaking of Auschwitz as the new
Golgotha
Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...
and the gas chambers as replacing the cross.
Works
* ''Parteibefreites Judentum'' (1935)
* ''Neue Jugend und Alter Glaube'' (1936)
* ''Man and Catastrophe'' (1941)
* ''Synagogue and Society: Jewish-Christian Collaboration in the Defence of Western Civilization'' (1944)
* ''The Jewish Home'' (1945)
* ''The Jewish Mission'' (1949)
* ''Jewish Existence'' (1960)
* ''The Faith of the Jewish Diaspora'' (1962)
* ''The Face of God After Auschwitz'' (1965)
* ''Trialogue Between Jew, Christian, and Muslim'' (1973)
* ''Happiness Outside the State'' (1980)
* ''Ignaz Maybaum: A Reader'',
Nicholas de Lange
Nicholas Robert Michael de Lange (born 7 August 1944) is a British Reform rabbi and historian. He is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Academic and literary career
Nicholas de Lange is an emeritus fellow at ...
(ed.), New York and Oxford:
Berghahn Books
Berghahn Books is a New York and Oxford-based publisher of scholarly books and academic journals in the humanities and social sciences, with a special focus on social & cultural anthropology, European history, politics, and film & media studies. ...
(2001)
References
* ''Ignaz Maybaum: A Reader'',
Nicholas de Lange
Nicholas Robert Michael de Lange (born 7 August 1944) is a British Reform rabbi and historian. He is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Academic and literary career
Nicholas de Lange is an emeritus fellow at ...
(ed.), New York: Berghahn Books
* "Ignaz Maybaum" in Cohn-Sherbok, D. (ed.), ''Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers'', London:
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...
, pp. 90–91
* 'Iganz Maybaum and the Call for an Anti-Nazi Crusade', a paper presented by Isaac Hershkowitz,
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic ...