Rabbi Max Lilienthal

Jewish minister in New York and later Cincinnati

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Lilienthal

Max Lilienthal (November 6, 1815 – April 6, 1882) was a German-born adviser for the reform of Jewish schools in Russia and later a rabbi and proponent of Reform Judaism in the United States.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_...

LILIENTHAL, MAX (Menahem; 1815–1882), educator, author, and rabbi. Born in Munich, Bavaria, Lilienthal completed his studies at the university of his native town, and in 1839, on the recommendation of Ludwig Philippson, was appointed director of the Jewish school of Riga. He succeeded in this position, and also became known for the sermons which he delivered in German at the Riga synagogue (published as Predigten in der Synagoge zu Riga, 1841). He formed a friendship with the Russian minister of education S.S. *Uvarov, to whom he dedicated the above work.

In 1841, on the recommendation of Uvarov, the czarist government invited Lilienthal to draw up a project for the establishment of state schools for Jews providing a European-type education. Lilienthal set out upon his task by attempting to persuade the community leaders in the *Pale of Settlement to accept the project. His mission encountered opposition and mistrust among Jews there. Orthodox circles, and particularly the Hasidim, considered the project an attempt by the government to destroy traditional Jewish education, and possibly even to convert the Jews, while the maskilim also expressed misgivings. Lilienthal's meetings with the representatives of the Jews of Vilna, one of the main centers of Russian Jewry, ended in failure. His attempts to issue threats in the name of the government (it is not clear whether he was authorized to do so) aroused revulsion, while his strategy of contacting the representatives of the Orthodox and Hasidim and ignoring the maskilim alienated the latter from him. The publication of his proposals to invite teachers from Germany for the projected schools was a cause of further mistrust. In *Minsk Lilienthal found open hostility accompanied by personal abuse. His reaction, in 1842, was an appeal to Uvarov to enforce "educational reform" on the Jews through a series of laws. The minister of education refused to do so, but by means of a decree (June 22, 1842) he hinted to the Jews that the czar himself was in favor of the reform.

In order to sever the connection between the projected "reforms" and the personality of Lilienthal, Uvarov appointed a commission composed of Jewish personalities to study the proposals. Lilienthal was called upon to undertake an extensive journey through the Jewish centers to assess public opinion and guide it in the desired direction. Having learned from his previous experiences, Lilienthal on this occasion did not repeat his former suggestions, such as the employment of teachers from abroad and the imposition of a tax on the melammedim (heder teachers), and succeeded in winning sympathy. However, his tactics in seeking an alliance with the Orthodox against the maskilim once more led to his failure. Lilienthal's appeal in Maggid Yeshu'ah (Vilna, 1842) brought a sharp retort from Mordecai Aaron *Guenzburg in the pamphlet Maggid Emet (Leipzig, 1843). The Commission for the Education of the Jews completed its task in 1843, and in 1844 a law for the establishment of state schools for the Jews was issued. In 1844, however, at the height of his success, Lilienthal had to leave Russia secretly. It appears that he had become convinced that the intentions of the czarist government were insincere and that it was scheming to exploit the network of schools as an instrument for eventual conversion to Christianity. The government's demand to exclude the study of Talmud from the curriculum marked the turning point in his outlook. Additionally, the law for the establishment of the schools was accompanied by other anti-Jewish laws in various spheres.

In 1845 Lilienthal immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City where he conducted a private boarding school for a few years. In 1849 he became rabbi of a short-lived union of the city's German congregations and directed their day schools. From 1855 until his death Lilienthal was rabbi of the important Bene Israel congregation of Cincinnati, which he led in the direction of moderate Reform. As a civic leader in his city on friendly terms with its Christian clergy, he was a member of its board of education (1860–69) and a trustee of the University of Cincinnati from 1872 until his death. He was perhaps the leading Jewish exponent in his day of the rigorous exclusion of all religious teaching from the public schools. Lilienthal actively cooperated with his fellow townsman Isaac Mayer *Wise in promoting Reform Judaism throughout the West, and was the publisher of The Sabbath Visitor from 1874, founder of the scholarly Rabbinical Literary Association, and taught at *Hebrew Union College from its opening in 1875. In 1857 he published Freiheit, Fruehling und Liebe, a collection of poems.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

D. Philipson, Max Lilienthal, his Life and Writings (1915); idem, The Reform Movement in Judaism (19312), index; D. Kahana, in: Ha-Shilo'ah, 27 (1913), 314–22, 446–57, 546–56; J.S. Raisin, The Haskalah Movement in Russia (1915); P. Wengeroff, Memoireneiner Grossmutter, 1 (1908), 123–43; J. Shatzky, Yidishe Bildungs-Politik in Poyln fun 1806 biz 1866 (1943), 71–80; H.B. Grinstein, in: HUCA, 18 (1943/44), 321–52; The Sabbath Visitor (April 14, 1882); Der deutsche Pionier, 14 (1882), 162–70, 211–6.

[Encyclopaedia Hebraica]

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9984-lilienthal-max

LILIENTHAL, MAX:

By: Herman Rosenthal

Rabbi and educator; born at Munich Nov. 6, 1815; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 5, 1882; educated at the University of Munich (Ph.D. 1837). In 1839 he accepted the office of principal in the newly established Jewish school of Riga, where he was appointed preacher also. The school was opened Jan. 15, 1840. In recognition of the sentiments expressed in the sermon with which Lilienthal opened the school the emperor Nicholas presented him with a diamond ring. In Dec., 1841, at the instance of Uvarov, minister of public instruction, to whom he was recommended by Count Maltitz, the Russian ambassador to Holland, Lilienthal was sent from St. Petersburg on an official mission. It was the intention of the government to establish Jewish schools for secular and religious instruction, and the duty assigned to Lilienthal was to determine the attitude of the Jews in regard to them and to quiet their fears as to the intentions of the government; for the plans of the latter were regarded with suspicion among the Jewish masses, who believed that the real purpose of the proposed schools was to lead the Jews gradually to conversion to Christianity. Lilienthal repaired to Wilna, where the community, acting on his assurances, appropriated 5,000 rubles for school purposes, and promised Lilienthal that more money would be supplied when necessary. But notwithstanding Lilienthal's assurances, the mistrust toward him of the Jews in Lithuania increased. At Minsk, whither he had gone at the invitation of the local ḳahal, he was given to understand that the Jews of Lithuania had no confidence in him. His stay in Minsk was rendered unpleasant by the resentment of the Jewish masses, and he even had to invoke the protection of the police. On his return to Wilna, Lilienthal found distrust of him growing there; thereupon, discouraged, he returned to St. Petersburg.

His "Maggid Yeshu'ah."

After several months' arduous work in the offices of the Ministry of Education and with Count Uvarov, he returned to Wilna and prepared a circular letter to the Jews of Russia, published under the title "Maggid Yeshu'ah." When a council of rabbis and other prominent Jews was convoked at St. Petersburg, consisting of Rabbi Isaac ben Ḥayyim ofVolozhin, Rabbi Mendel Shneersohn of Lubavich, Bezaleel Stern of Odessa, and Israel Heilprin of Berdychev, Lilienthal was appointed secretary of a senatorial committee of fourteen. During the sessions Stern had many an encounter with Lilienthal and was even provoked to accuse him of ignorance of the Talmud. In the autumn of 1842 Lilienthal went to Odessa with letters of recommendation from Uvarov to Count M. S. Vorontzov. The Odessa community received him warmly, and appointed him their rabbi. Lilienthal was soon convinced, however, that his efforts in behalf of the Russian Jews would not yield the desired results; as a foreigner it was difficult for him to gain a true insight into their traditions, hopes, and aspirations. He did not understand them, nor they him; and he was placed in an awkward and delicate position by the distrust of the Jews on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by the efforts of the government to effect their assimilation without according them full rights of citizenship.

Associate Editor of "American Israelite."

Lilienthal left Russia suddenly in 1844 and went to the United States. Settling in New York, he became rabbi of the Congregation Anshe Chesed, Norfolk street, and, later, rabbi of Shaar ha-Shomayim, Attorney street. His somewhat advanced views led to considerable friction. He resigned his position in 1850 and established an educational institute with which he attained considerable success. In 1854 he became correspondent of the "American Israelite," and in the following year removed to Cincinnati and became associate editor of that journal and rabbi of the Congregation Bene Israel. His activity in Cincinnati extended over a period of twenty-seven years. He organized the Rabbinical Literary Association, serving as its president, and was at first instructor and later professor of Jewish history and literature at Hebrew Union College. He was prominent, also, in the Jewish press as the founder and editor of the "Hebrew Review," a quarterly, and the "Sabbath-School Visitor," a weekly, and as a frequent contributor to the "Israelite," the "Occident," "Deborah" (founded by him), the "Asmonean," "Volksblatt," and "Volksfreund." He published a volume of poems entitled "Freiheit, Frühling und Liebe" (1857), several volumes of addresses and sermons, and left three dramas in manuscript—"Die Strelitzen Mutter," "Rudolf von Habsburg," and "Der Einwanderer."

Lilienthal took an active interest in the affairs of the municipality. As member of the Cincinnati board of education, and as director of the Relief Union and of the university board, he contributed much to the welfare of his adopted city. He was a reformer by nature; he was instrumental in introducing reforms in his own congregation in Cincinnati, constantly preached tolerance, and urged a more liberal interpretation of Jewish law.

Bibliography:

• A. Ehrlich, Entwickelungsgeschichte der Israelitischen Gemeindeschule zu Riga, pp. 9-14;
• Leḳeṭ Amarim, supplement to Ha-Meliẓ, 1888, pp. 86-89;
• Kayserling, Gedenkblätter, p. 50;
• Ha-Pardes, pp. 186, 198;
• Jüdisches Volksblatt, 1856, No. 36;
• Lilienthal, My Travels in Russia, in American Israelite, vols. i. and ii.;
• Independent, New York, xlviii. 343;
• Wunderbar, Gesch. der Juden in Liv- und Kurland, pp. 14-15, Mitau, 1853;
• Morgulis, in Yevreiskaya Biblioteka, i.;
• Yevreiskiya Zapiski, 1881, p. 9;
• Vyestnik Russkikh Yevreyev, 1871, No. 26.

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http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Lilienthal_Max

Lilienthal, Max (1815–1882), German rabbi, born and educated in Munich; famous for establishing modern schools for Jews in the Russian Empire. In 1839, Ludwig Phillipson, a moderate reforming rabbi and editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, recommended Lilienthal to serve as rabbi and teacher in the largely German-speaking Jewish community of Riga. Lilienthal’s role in establishing a modern school for Jewish children there came to the attention of the minister of education of the Russian Empire, Count Sergei S. Uvarov, who hired him in 1841 to serve as special adviser for Jewish affairs. Lilienthal’s mission was to replicate his Riga school throughout the Pale of Settlement, as part of Uvarov’s plan to “enlighten” the Jews of Russia by weaning them away from conventional Talmudic learning, introducing them to secular studies, and training them to become artisans. Although viewed traditionally as a malignant scheme aimed at converting Jews to Russian Orthodoxy, recent scholarship has argued that Uvarov’s plan was not, in fact, aimed at proselytizing, but was a small part of his overall goal to introduce Western-style and classical education throughout the Russian Empire. This plan, however, faced severe opposition from some top governmental authorities in Russia, and in many ways contradicted the basic ideology of Tsar Nicholas I, for whose regime Uvarov was a major theoretician, and which emphasized autocracy, Russian Orthodoxy, and Russian nationalism.

The most serious opposition to Lilienthal’s mission, however, came not from the Russian government, but from traditional Jews themselves, and especially from their rabbinical leaders, who opposed any changes in the education of Jewish children and viewed attempts in this direction by Russian officials—or their German Jewish plenipotentiaries—as promoting conversion by definition. Many adherents of the Russian Jewish Enlightenment movement, the Haskalah, also were suspicious of Lilienthal, given his German reforming background and especially his weakness in Hebrew. To convince Jews of his benign intentions, Lilienthal traveled throughout the Pale of Settlement, where he encountered a great deal of opposition.

Despite resistance, the Russian Ministry of Education under Count Uvarov issued a law in 1844, calling for the creation of a network of state-sponsored schools for Jewish children throughout the Pale. A substantial number of such schools were opened, for boys and soon for girls as well. Although traditional Jews viewed these schools with grave suspicion and refused to register their children, other parents—those without means, those supporting the ideals of Enlightenment, or those who simply wanted their children to learn Russian and secular studies for practical reasons—did enroll. The schools also provided employment opportunities for nontraditional teachers, and thus furthered the cause of the Haskalah in Eastern Europe.

A year after the law was passed, however, Lilienthal declined to return to Russia after a vacation in Germany, where he had married. His abandonment of the project has conventionally been explained as a result of his unmasking of the missionary intent of the Russian regime, but was most probably the result of personal matters unrelated to his position in Russia or the supposed intentions of Uvarov or Nicholas I. In 1845, Lilienthal immigrated to the United States, where he served for long years as the rabbi of a Reform congregation in Cincinnati.

Suggested Reading

Simon Dubnow, “Uvarov and Lilienthal,” in History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, vol. 2, pp. 50–59 (Philadelphia, 1918); Sophie Lilienthal, The Lilienthal Family Record (San Francisco, 1930); Michael Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish Society in Russia, 1825–1855 (Philadelphia, 1983).