Leopold Zunz (—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', —''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (''

Wissenschaft des Judentums "''Wissenschaft des Judentums''" (literally in German language, German the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the United States it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquir ...

''), the

critical Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine * Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing i ...

investigation of

Jewish literature Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature ...

, hymnology and ritual. Nahum Glatzer, Pelger Grego
"Zunz, Leopold"
''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd ed., 2007) Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism.

Biography

Leopold Zunz was born at

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

, the son of

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

scholar Immanuel Menachem Zunz (1759–1802) and Hendel Behrens (1773–1809), the daughter of Dov Beer, an assistant cantor of the Detmold community. The year following his birth his family moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, where, as a young boy, he began learning Hebrew grammar, the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

, and the Talmud. His father, who was his first teacher, died in July 1802, when Zunz was not quite eight years old.Kaufmann, David (1900).
Zunz, Leopold
" In: ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie''. Vol. 45, p. 490-501. Online version retrieved 2016-12-10. He subsequently gained admission to the Jewish "free school" (Freischule) founded by Philipp Samson, in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...

. Departing from home in July 1803, he saw his mother for the last time (she died in 1809 during his years in Wolfenbüttel). A turning point in Zunz's development came in 1807, when , a reform-minded educator, took over the directorship of the Samson School. Ehrenberg reorganized the curriculum, introducing, alongside traditional learning, new subjects such as religion, history, geography, French, and German; he became Zunz's mentor, and they remained friends until Ehrenberg's death in 1853. The summer of 1811 is noteworthy as the time when Zunz made his first acquaintance with

Johann Christoph Wolf Johann Christoph Wolf (February 21, 1683, at Wernigerode – July 25, 1739, at Hamburg) was a German Christian Hebraist, polymath, and collector of books. He studied at Wittenberg, and traveled in Holland and England in the interest of science, c ...

's ''Bibliotheca Hebræa'', which, together with

David Gans David Gans (; ‎1541–1613), also known as Rabbi Dovid Solomon Ganz, was a German-Jewish chronicler, mathematician, historian, astronomer and astrologer. He is the author of "Tzemach David" (1592) and therefore also known by this title, the ...

's ''Tzemach David'', gave him his first introduction to Jewish literature and the first impulse to think of the "Science of Judaism.""Zunz, Leopold"
By Isidore Singer, Emil G. Hirsch, ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901–1906) He settled in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1815, studying at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

and obtaining a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

from the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

by the Hungarian rabbi

Aaron Chorin Aaron Chorin (; August 3, 1766August 24, 1844) was a Hungarian rabbi and pioneer of early religious reform. He favored the use of the organ and of prayers in the vernacular, and was instrumental in founding schools along modern lines. Endnote: ...

, an early supporter of religious reform, and served for two years teaching and giving sermons in the Beer reformed synagogue in Berlin. He found the career uncongenial, and in 1840 he was appointed director of a ''Lehrerseminar,'' a post which relieved him from pecuniary troubles. Zunz was always interested in politics, and in 1848 addressed many public meetings. In 1850 he resigned his headship of the Teachers' Seminary, and was awarded a pension. Throughout his early and married life he was the champion of Jewish rights, and he did not withdraw from public affairs until 1874, the year of the death of his wife Adelheid Beermann, whom he had married in 1822. Together with other young men, among them the poet

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

, Zunz founded the ''Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden'' (The Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews) alongside

Joel Abraham List Joel Abraham List (1780–1848) was one of the seven founding members of the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews ( Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden); he served as its president from March 1820 to March 1821. He was also ...

Isaac Marcus Jost Isaak Marcus (Markus) Jost (February 22, 1793, Bernburg – November 22, 1860, Frankfurt am Main) was a Jewish historical writer. He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In Berlin he began to teach, and in 1835 received the appo ...

, and

Eduard Gans Eduard Gans (March 22, 1797 – May 5, 1839) was a German jurist. Biography Gans was born in Berlin to prosperous Jewish parents. He studied law first at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin, then at Göttingen, and finally at Heidelberg, w ...

in Berlin in 1819. In 1823, Zunz became the editor of the ''Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums'' (Journal for the Science of Judaism). The ideals of this ''Verein'' were not destined to bear religious fruit, but the "Science of Judaism" survived. Zunz "took no large share in Jewish reform", but never lost faith in the regenerating power of "

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

" as applied to the traditions and literary legacies of the ages. He influenced Judaism from the study rather than from the pulpit. Although affiliated with the Reform movement, Zunz appeared to show little sympathy for it, though this has been attributed to his disdain for ecclesiastical ambition and fears that rabbinical autocracy would result from the Reform crusade. Further,

Isidore Singer Isidore Singer (10 November 1859 – 20 February 1939) was an Austrian-born American encyclopedist and editor of '' The Jewish Encyclopedia'' and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man. Biography Singer was born in 1859 in ...

and

Emil Hirsch Emil Gustav Hirsch (May 22, 1851 – January 7, 1923) was a History of the Jews in Luxembourg, Luxembourgish-born American Jews, Jewish American Biblical studies, biblical scholar, Reform Judaism, Reform rabbi, contributing editor to numerous a ...

have stated that "the point of (Geiger's) protest against Reform was directed against

Samuel Holdheim Samuel Holdheim (1806 – 22 August 1860) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the more extreme leaders of the early Reform Movement in Judaism. A pioneer in modern Jewish homiletics, he was often at odds with the Orthodox community.(Hist ...

and the position maintained by this leader as an autonomous rabbi." Later in life Zunz went so far as to refer to rabbis as ''soothsayers and quacks''. The violent outcry raised against the Talmud by some of the principal spirits of the Reform party was repugnant to Zunz's historic sense. Zunz himself was temperamentally inclined to assign a determinative potency to sentiment, this explaining his tender reverence for ceremonial usages. Although Zunz kept to the Jewish ritual practises, he understood them as symbols (see among others his meditation on tefillin, reprinted in "Gesammelte Schriften," ii. 172-176). This contrasts with the traditional view of the validity of divine ordinances according to which the faithful are bound to observe without inquiry into their meaning. His position accordingly approached that of the symbolists among the reformers who insisted that symbols had their function, provided their suggestive significance was spontaneously comprehensible. He emphasized most strongly the need of a moral regeneration of the Jews. He wrote precise philological studies but also impassioned speeches on the Jewish nation and history that had an influence on later Jewish historians. Zunz wrote in 1855:

"If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes precedence of all the nations; if the duration of sorrows and the patience with which they are borne ennoble, the Jews can challenge the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in the possession of a few classic tragedies—what shall we say to a National Tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes?"

In 1840 he became director of the Berlin Jewish Teachers' Seminary. He was friendly with the traditional Enlightenment figure

Nachman Krochmal Nachman HaKohen Krochmal (; born in Brody, Galicia, on 17 February 1785; died at Ternopil on 31 July 1840) was a Jewish Galician philosopher, theologian, and historian. Biography Nachman HaKohen Krochmal began studying Talmud at an early ...

whose ''Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman'' (Lemberg, 1851), was edited, according to the author's last will, by his friend Leopold Zunz. Zunz died in

in 1886.

Works

Zunz’ famous article “Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur” (“On Rabbinical Literature”), published in 1818, established the intellectual agenda of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (“Science of Judaism”), while adumbrating the main themes of his own future work as well. Even at this early stage of his academic career, Zunz mapped out his concept of the Wissenschaft des Judentums which he intended to serve as a medium for presenting, preserving, and transmitting the corpus of Jewish literary works. Zunz believed that only an academic approach to Jewish texts and a comprehensive and interdisciplinary academic framework would allow for the adequate study of Jewish themes and Judaism. In 1832 appeared "the most important Jewish book published in the 19th century." This was Zunz's ''Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden'', i.e. a history of the

Sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...

. It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis (

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

) and of the

siddur A siddur ( ''sīddūr'', ; plural siddurim ) is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books are ''tefillot'' () among Sephardi Jews, ''tef ...

(prayer-book of the synagogue). This book raised Zunz to the supreme position among Jewish scholars. In 1845 appeared his ''Zur Geschichte und Literatur'', in which he threw light on the literary and social history of the Jews. He had visited the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in 1846, and this confirmed him in his plan for his third book, ''Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters'' (1855). It was from this book that

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

translated the following opening of a chapter of ''

Daniel Deronda ''Daniel Deronda'' is a novel by English author George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, first published in eight parts (books) February to September 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the Victorian society of ...

'': "If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes precedence of all the nations...". After its publication Zunz again visited England, and in 1859 issued his ''Ritus''. In this he gives a masterly survey of synagogal rites. His last great book was his ''Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie'' (1865). A supplement appeared in 1867. Besides these works, Zunz published a new translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, and wrote many essays which were afterwards collected as ''Gesammelte Schriften''. * ''Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur.'' Berlin : Maurersche Buchhandlung, 1818
Digital Form

SLUB Dresden The Saxon State and University Library Dresden (full name in ), abbreviated SLUB Dresden, is located in Dresden, Germany. It is both the regional library () for the German State of Saxony as well as the academic library for the Dresden Universit ...

via EOD * ''Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden historisch entwickelt'' : ein Beitrag zur Alterthumskunde u. biblischen Kritik, zur Literatur- u. Religionsgeschichte. Berlin : Asher, 1832
Digital Form
Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. ** Translated into Hebrew as ''הדרשות בישראל והשתלשלותן ההיסטורית'' (1947, Bialik Institute) *''Namen der Juden: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung'', Leipzig, L. Fort, 1837. * ''Die vier und zwanzig Bücher der Heiligen Schrift :'' Nach dem masoretischen Texte / unter der Redaction von Dr. Zunz ; übersetzt von H. Arnheim, Dr. Julius Fürst, Dr. M. Sachs. Berlin : Veit, 1837/1839. * ''Zur Geschichte und Literatur.'' Berlin : Veit, 1845
Digital Form
Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. * ''Predigten gehalten in der neuen Israelitischen Synagoge zu Berlin.'' Berlin : Schlesinger 1846. * ''Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters.'' Berlin, 1855
Digital Form
Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. * ''Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg, Inspektor der Samsonschen Freischule zu Wolfenbüttel''. Braunschweig : Gebrüder Meyer, 1854. * ''Die icRitus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes geschichtlich entwickelt.'' Berlin : Springer, 1859. (Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters ; Bd. 2
Digital Form
Freimann-Sammlung Frankfurt. * ''Deutsche Briefe''. Leipzig , F.A. Brockhaus, 1872. * ''Die Monatstage des Kalenderjahres'' ; ein Andenken an Hingeschiedene. Berlin ; M. Poppelauer, 1872. * ''Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie.'' Berlin : Gerschel, 1865, mit einem Ergänzungsband 1867
Digital Form
Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. * Gesammelte Schriften. Berlin : Gerschel, 1875–76
Bd. 1Bd. 2Bd.3
Digital Form: Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. * ''Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums'' Jg. 1, Heft 1–3, 1822 (not more published). Edited by Leopold Zunz and Eduard Gans
Digital Form
Compact Memory, Frankfurt. (About: J. Raphael ''Die Zeitschrift des Dr. L. Z.'' in: Zeitschrift f. d. Geschichte der Juden, Heft 1/1970, Tel Aviv: Olamenu, S. 31–36)

References

Citations

Sources

* *
"Zunz, Leopold"
entry by Nahum N. Glatzer and Gregor Pelger, ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd ed., 2007)
Leopold Zunz
myjewishlearning.com * * Elbogen, Ismar. "Leopold Zunz zum Gedächtnis." ''In: F''ünfzigter'' Bericht der Lehranstalt fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. Berlin, 1936, 14-32.'' * Glatzer, Nahum Norbert (ed.): ''Leopold and Adelheid Zunz, an account in letters 1815-1885.'' London : Published for the Institute by the East and West Library, 1958. (Publications of the Leo Baeck Institute of Jews from Germany) * Glatzer, Nahum Norbert (ed.): ''Leopold Zunz, Jude, Deutscher, Europäer; ein jüdisches Gelehrtenschicksal des 19. Jahrhunderts in Briefen an Freunde.'' Tübingen : Mohr, 1964. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts, 11) * Michael A. Meyer, ''The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824'', Wayne State University Press, Detroit, (1967) 1984 * Schorsch, Ismar. ''Leopold Zunz : creativity in adversity.'' Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. . * Veltri, Giuseppe. "A Jewish Luther? The academic dreams of Leopold Zunz''."'' In: ''Jewish Studies Quarterly.'' 7/4 (2000), 338-351. * Vetter, Dieter. "Leopold Zunz. (Mit-)Begründer der Wissenschaft des Judentums." In: ''Freiburger Rundbrief.'' 13/2 (2006), 111-122. * * Wieseltier, Leon. „Etwas über die jüdische Historik''.'' Leopold Zunz and the Inception of Modern Jewish Historiography''."'' In: ''History and Theory.'' 20/2 (May, 1981), 135-149.

Biography

Works

References

Citations

Sources

External links