Post by Pinchas Landis

5 Av – Rav Azriel Hildesheimer – 1899 On this day in 1899, Rav Azriel Hildesheimer passed away, making this day his yartzeit. Born in Halberstadt, Prussia in 1820, he studied in the yeshiva of Rav Yaakov Ettlinger in Altona before earning a doctorate from the University of Halle-Wittenberg, becoming likely the first Orthodox rabbi in Germany to hold a secular Ph.D. Broadly recognized as the father of Modern Orthodoxy, he was simple in his habits, fearless in his convictions, and financially independent, never accepting a penny for his rabbinical work. His life's project was to demonstrate that unbending fidelity to halacha could coexist with engagement in the wider world. In Eisenstadt, Hungary, he founded a yeshiva that was the only Orthodox institution requiring a significant secular education for admission, and he was attacked from every direction for it. Reform leaders saw his graduates as a threat, while zealots on the extreme right denounced the yeshiva to the Hungarian government, which ordered it closed within twenty-four hours, and placed him under a ban as not truly a sincere Jew. He paid the ban no mind. In 1873 he founded the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin, which trained and ordained virtually every Orthodox rabbi in Germany for the next quarter century, and he fought Reform relentlessly, publishing a direct attack on Abraham Geiger. Rav Hildesheimer never compromised on halacha, but he possessed a fierce sense of Klal Yisrael and worked with all Jews on matters of welfare and the battle against antisemitism. His devotion to the Land of Israel was extraordinary. He raised vast sums for the Jews of Jerusalem, personally built houses there for the poor and for pilgrims, founded an orphanage, and was the lone voice in his relief organization urging that Jews fleeing the Russian pogroms be directed to Eretz Yisrael rather than America. So tireless was his philanthropy on behalf of Jews from Russia to Persia to Ethiopia that he came to be known affectionately as the international schnorrer. Find out more: The Book: https://zurl.co/ynxgb WhatsApp: https://zurl.co/VDEzu . #jewish #israel #judaism #jew #jerusalem #torah #kosher #jewishlife #shabbat #jews #shabbatshalom #israeli #hebrew #jewishculture #jewishholidays #jewishgirl #jewishcommunity #jewishhistory #jewishpride #jewishwedding #synagogue #jewishwomen #fyp #foryou #viral #foryoupage #fy #trending