R' Lazar (Eleazar) Horowitz, A.B.D. Vienna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Horowitz

Lazar Horowitz, or Eleazar HaLevi Ish Horowitz, Eleasar ben David Josua Hoeschel Horowitz, aka El'azar Hurwitz [1] (1803/1804, Floß, Upper Palatinate - June 11, 1868, Vöslau) was an Orthodox Rabbi who led the Orthodox Jewish community of Vienna during the Vormärz period.

Born in Bavaria, Horowitz was a student of Moses Sofer of Pressburg before moving to Vienna in 1828 to serve as the community's supervisor of Kosher meat. There, he collaborated with Reform Jewish rabbis of his day, such as Isaak Noah Mannheimer and Adolph Jellinek 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 Jew, he continued to pray occasionally in the Reform temple.

Horwitz wrote a book of halakhic responsa 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 defended Heinrich Graetz in Viennese court when Graetz was accused of heresy for an article he had published in a local journal. Graetz had written that the chapters in Isaiah referring to the Messiah were meant to be interpreted non-literally, and that they referred to a national Messiah instead of a personal one. Other Orthodox rabbis, including Azriel Hildesheimer, criticized Horowitz for defending Graetz, arguing that it was inapproproate for an Orthodox rabbi to defend the theology of a Positive-Historical historian, no matter what the historian had written.

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http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Horowitz

Lazar Horowitz (Eleasar Ben David Josua Hoeschel; * 1803 in Floß, Oberpfalz; † 11. Juni 1868 in Vöslau) war von 1828-1868 Oberrabbiner von Wien.

Leben

Horowitz war ein Schüler von Moses Sofer. 1828 wurde er von Isaak Löw Hofmann eingeladen, als Rabbiner der jüdischen Gemeinde Wien zu amtieren. Da zu dieser Zeit die Gemeinde keine behördliche Anerkennung genoss, musste er anstelle des Rabbineramtes zunächst den Titel eines Ritualienaufsehers annehmen. Er befolgte strikte Grundsätze in Fragen zur Kaschrut und anderen Bereichen der Halacha, bemühte sich jedoch um einen Ausgleich rivalisierender Gruppen innerhalb der jüdischen Gemeinde. Zusammen mit Prediger Isaak Mannheimer beteiligte er sich an der Kampagne zur Aufhebung des Judeneids („more judaico“) sowie an der Revolution von 1848. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt forderte er die Juden in Österreich auf, ihre politische und soziale Lage zu verbessern, und schlug auch eine vermehrte jüdische Mitwirkung in der Landwirtschaft vor.

Horowitz war ein Günstling der Erzherzogin Maria Dorothea, die ein Interesse an hebräischer Literatur pflegte und an die Rückkehr der Juden ins Heilige Land glaubte. Auf sein Bitten hin machte sie 1851 die angeordnete Ausweisung von Hunderten jüdischer Familien aus Wien rückgängig. Beim Prozess von Leopold Kompert, Redakteur der Neuzeit, bei dem ein Artikel von Heinrich Graetz über Messianismus zur Debatte stand, wurde Horowitz als Experte gerufen. Horowitz hielt Vorträge im jüdischen Lehrhaus unter der Leitung von Adolf Jellinek und verfasste Beiträge für hebräische Zeitschriften.

Literatur

Constantin von Wurzbach: Horowitz, Lasar. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. Band 9. Verlag L. C. Zamarski, Wien 1856–1891, S. 305–307 (bei Wikisource).

Encyclopedia Judaica, Bd. 8, S. 995–996

Die Grabschriften des alten Judenfriedhofes in Eisenstadt- Dr. Bernhard Wachstein- page 83- here he appears as the grandson of David and not his son!!!

Austrian rabbi; born at Flosz, Bavaria, 1803; died at Vöslau, near Vienna, June 11, 1868. He was the son of David Joshua Hoeshel, rabbi of Flosz, and grandson of ?ebi Hirsch Horwitz, rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main. In 1822 his father was called to the rabbinate of Frauenkirchen, Hungary. Horowitz was educated in Talmud by his father until, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to Presburg to continue his studies under Moses Schreiber (from 1821 to 1825). In the latter year he was called home by the death of his father, and the congregation of Frauenkirchen elected him as his successor; Horowitz, however, refused the call. He lived for some time at Deutsch-Kreuz, where he married. In 1828 private affairs called him to Vienna, where he made the acquaintance of the banker Isaac Lüw von Hoffmannsthal, through whose influence he was appointed rabbi of the community; Horowitz heldthat position until his death. As the Jews of Vienna, however, were not recognized as a corporation and could not engage a rabbi, his official title was that of "supervisor of ritual" ("Ritualienaufseher") until the constitution of 1848 abolished their disabilities. In 1828 he instituted the Talmud Torah; in 1835 he established a society (Shas ?ebra) for the study of the Talmud.

Among Horowitz's disciples were Albert Cohn, Gerson Wolf, and Abraham Schmiedel. True to the teachings of his master, he was very strict in all questions of the ritual law, though he made many concessions to the spirit of the time, especially where the harmony and peace of the congregation were involved. He prohibited not only the use, but even the sale, during Passover, of loaf sugar which had not been manufactured under ritual supervision ("Yad Eleazar," No. 22); he would not allow during Passover the use of enameled vessels which had been used during the year (ib. Nos. 84, 96); he prohibited the sale of sacred scrolls to non Jews, even when it could be safely presumed that they would not profane them (ib. No. 76); he prohibited the use of stearin candles in the synagogue (ib. No. 58); in the case of a Jewish manufacturer of chinaware, he insisted that he should not manufacture any human figure without a defect sufficient to avoid transgression of the second commandment (ib. No. 129). He supported those who decided, in the Flörsheim case in Frankfort-on-the-Main, that an uncircumcised boy was not a Jew (Trier, "Rabbinische Gutachten über die Beschneidung," Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1844), as well as those who protested against the rabbinical conference of Brunswick ("Shelome Emune Yisrael," 1845); and he rendered a decision against the Reform party in Mantua who wished to abolish the second day of the holy days ("Yad Eleazar," No. 131). On the other hand, he decided, supported by Moses Schreiber, that me?i?ah was not obligatory in Circumcision, physicians having declared it dangerous (ib. No. 55; "Kokebe Yi??a?." i. 44-51). When a difficulty arose in the congregation of Dessau in regard to performing in the synagogue a marriage ceremony which the Orthodox had condemned, he declared that the maintenance of peace in the congregation was of far greater weight than such a question.

Horowitz's mild attitude toward those who differed with him was especially noticeable in the case against Leopold Kompert, who was accused of having libeled the "Orthodox Jewish religion" by publishing in his year-book an article by Grätz, who had denied that Isaiah taught a personal Messiah. Horowitz, who was called as an expert, declared at the trial (Dec. 30, 1863) that he knew no "Orthodox Judaism" as a distinct church, and that, while he considered the belief in a personal Messiah as essential in Judaism, there was room for differences in regard to the explanation of the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. This broad-mindedness provoked a strong opposition. Israel Hildesheimer, then in Eisenstadt, issued a protest against this view which received the signatures of 156 rabbis, who had not looked with favor upon the fact that Horowitz lectured in the bet ha-midrash founded by Jellinek; but the storm soon subsided, and, as may be seen from the names of the rabbis who addressed ritualistic questions to him, Horowitz came to be a recognized authority. Besides articles in various Hebrew periodicals, and an introduction to the "?e?er Halakah" (Vienna, 1838) of his maternal grandfather, Horowitz wrote a volume of responsa ("Yad Eleazar," Vienna, 1870), published after his death by his sons Bibliography: Die Neuzeit, 1868, No. 25; Ha-Shahar, i. 3-18; preface to Yad Eleazar. On the controversy with Hildesheimer see Neuzeit, 1864. No. 5, passim: I. H. Weiss, Ne?a? Yisrael, Vienna, 1864.”

The Jiewhs Chronicle, JULY 3 1868, p.8: We are extremely sorry to have to record the decease of the rabbi of Vienna, Eleazar Horwitz. He was a most amiable, peace-loving man. He belonged to the orthodox school, but was ready to yield on non-essential points.