Leser Landshuth (15 January 1817 – 23 March 1887) was a German Jewish liturgiologist. He went to Berlin as a youth to study Jewish theology, and there he became acquainted with

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz (—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', —''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies ('' Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Nah ...

and

Abraham Geiger Abraham Geiger (Hebrew: ''ʼAvrāhām Gayger''; 24 May 181023 October 1874) was a German rabbi and scholar who is considered the founding father of Reform Judaism and the academic field of Quranic studies. Emphasizing Judaism's constant developm ...

, the latter of whom was then staying in that city in order to become naturalized in

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. Landshuth soon gave up his intention of becoming 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 t ...

, not being willing to conceal or renounce his liberal opinions; and aided him in establishing himself as a Hebrew bookseller. Meanwhile, Landshuth kept up his literary activity; and in 1845 he published as an appendix to the prayer-book issued by Hirsch Edelmann ("Siddur Hegyon Leb"; commonly known as "Landshuth's Prayer-Book") an essay on the origin of Hebrew prayers. His essay on the

Haggadah The Haggadah (, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to reco ...

(Berlin, 1855) and the introduction to Aaron Berechiah's ''Ma'abar Yabboq'', a handbook of the funeral customs of the Jews, are along similar lines ("," Berlin, 1867). A number of inscriptions from the tombstones of prominent men are added to the latter work. Landshuth's chief work was his "," on Hebrew liturgical poetry (2 vols., ib. 1857–62), a painstaking and important contribution to the subject. No less valuable are his works relating to the history of the Jewish community of Berlin, parts of which have been incorporated in Ludwig Geiger's "" (ib. 1871); other portions have been published in ''Die Gegenwart'' (ib. 1867) and other periodicals. He published also "," history of the Berlin rabbis 1671–1871 (ib. 1884). Many valuable manuscript notes by Landshuth passed into the possession of of Berlin; and other matter was reprinted by from Landshuth's notes in ''

Ha-Melitz ''HaMelitz'' (Hebrew: ) was the first Hebrew newspaper in the Russian Empire. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum in Odessa in 1860. History ''HaMelitz'' first appeared as a weekly, and it began to appear daily in 1886. From 1871, it was publis ...

'', 1886. Landshuth also copied and arranged the early communal archives of Berlin (written in Hebrew) and the inscriptions of the old cemetery in that city, which was closed in 1827.

References

*''

Ha-Asif ''Ha-Asif'' () was a Hebrew language, Hebrew-language yearly journal, published in Warsaw by Nahum Sokolow, Naḥum Sokolow. Its first volume appeared in 1884; it continued to appear regularly every year until 1889, when the fifth volume came out ...

'', 1888, pp. 25–29. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Landshuth, Leser 1817 births 1887 deaths People from Leszno 19th-century German Jews Liturgists Jewish historians 19th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers People from the Grand Duchy of Posen 19th-century male writers