18 Facts About Azriel Hildesheimer

Azriel Hildesheimer was a German rabbi and leader of Orthodox Judaism.

Azriel Hildesheimer is regarded as a pioneering moderniser of Orthodox Judaism in Germany and as a founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Azriel Hildesheimer attended the Hasharat Zvi school in Halberstadt, and, from age seventeen, the Yeshiva of Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger in Altona; chacham Isaac Bernays was one of his teachers and his model as a preacher.

Azriel Hildesheimer studied Semitic languages and mathematics, and continued his study in Talmud.

Azriel Hildesheimer then returned to Halberstadt, where he married Henrietta Hirsch, whose dowry made them financially independent.

Azriel Hildesheimer initially introduced limited secular studies in the elementary school; the older students received a secular education as well, but with a focus on mathematics and other subjects that would enhance their understanding of gemara.

Adass Jisroel chose Azriel Hildesheimer to represent them as an "Orthodox rabbi of standing".

Azriel Hildesheimer was thus the real intellectual founder and leader of the Adass Jisroel congregation.

Azriel Hildesheimer was "simple in his habits and fearless"; he had an unusual capacity for work; and his great Talmudic learning "was joined to practical administrative ability".

Azriel Hildesheimer was financially independent, and never accepted remuneration for his rabbinical activity.

Azriel Hildesheimer was frequently engaged in philanthropic activities connected with his own congregation, but additionally, "no labor was too great and no journey too long for him" in the service of the Jews of Germany, Austria, Russia, and even Abyssinia and Persia, so that he came to be known as the "international schnorrer".

Azriel Hildesheimer took a special interest in the welfare of the Jews of Palestine.

In 1860, when the missionary society of Palestine provided seventy free dwellings for homeless Jews, Azriel Hildesheimer himself built houses in Jerusalem for the free use of Jewish pilgrims and for the poor.

Azriel Hildesheimer contributed articles to various journals and newspapers: the Judische Presse, Ha-Lebanon, He-Chalutz and Archives Israelites.

Azriel Hildesheimer is regarded as a pioneering "Moderniser" of Orthodox Judaism in Germany.

Azriel Hildesheimer was insistent that for Orthodox Jews living in the West, there was no possibility to segregate oneself behind ghetto walls.

Azriel Hildesheimer thus undertook a variety of actions which render him a "modern" activist and institution-builder.

Azriel Hildesheimer seems to have cared little for the ban.