Lazar Horowitz, or Eleazar HaLevi Ish Horowitz, Eleasar ben David Josua Hoeschel Horowitz, aka El'azar Hurwitz
/ref> (1803/1804, Floß,

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

- June 11, 1868, Vöslau) was an Orthodox Rabbi who led the Jewish community of Vienna during the ''

Vormärz ' (; English: ''pre-March'') was a period in the history of Germany preceding the 1848 March Revolution in the states of the German Confederation. The beginning of the period is less well-defined. Some place the starting point directly after ...

'' period and became the first Chief Rabbi of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna in 1852, while retaining his title and position as Chief Rabbi of Vienna. As such, Horowitz was the last Chief Rabbi of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde who was also Chief Rabbi of Vienna. Born in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Horowitz was a student of Moses Sofer of

Pressburg Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

before moving to Vienna in 1828 to serve as the community's supervisor of

Kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

meat. There, he collaborated with

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous rev ...

rabbis of his day, such as Isaak Noah Mannheimer and

Adolph Jellinek Adolf Jellinek ( ''Aharon Jelinek''; 26 June 1821 in Drslavice (Uherské Hradiště District), Drslavice, Moravia – 28 December 1893 in Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholarly method, scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig (1845 ...

regarding synagogue protocol in the central synagogues of Vienna. In 1829, he drafted the bylaws of the central Stadttempel. Although he himself was an Orthodox Rabbi, he prayed occasionally in the Stadttempel where Isaac Noah Mannheimer, who tried to introduce reforms, served as its pulpit rabbi. Horwitz wrote a book of halakhic

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

called ''"Yad Eleazar."'' His responsum regarding '' metzitzah b'peh'' was strongly influenced by the Hatam Sofer's rulings, according to Meir Hershkovitz in his 1972 article on Horwitz. In 1863, Horowitz, along with Isaac Noah Mannheimer, defended

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

, in Viennese court when Graetz was accused of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

for an article published by Leopold Kompert in a local journal. Graetz had written that the chapters in

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

referring to the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

were meant to be interpreted non-literally, and that they referred to a national Messiah instead of a personal one.

Isaac Hirsch Weiss Isaac (Isaak) Hirsch Weiss, also Eisik Hirsch Weiss () (9 February 1815 – 1 June 1905), was an Jews of Austria, Austrian Talmudist and historian of literature born at Velké Meziříčí, Groß Meseritsch, Habsburg Moravia. After having recei ...

published a pamphlet entitled ''Neẓaḥ Yisrael'' in support of the testimony. On the other hand, rabbis such Azriel Hildesheimer, criticized Horowitz for defending Graetz. See Heinrich Graetz #The Kompert Affair.

References

German Orthodox rabbis Rabbis from the Austrian Empire Chief rabbis of Vienna 19th-century Austrian rabbis Austrian people of German descent People from Neustadt an der Waldnaab (district) 1804 births 1868 deaths {{Austria-academic-bio-stub

See also

References