Heinrich Graetz

Heinrich Graetz (born on October 31st, 1817 - deceased on September 7th, 1891) was among the first historians to write a complete history of the Jewish people from the Jewish point of view.

Tzvi Hirsh Graetz was born in a family from butchers in Książ-Wielkopolski (Poznań) in Germany (today in Poland), it obtained its doctorate of the Université of Iéna. After 1845 he was Jewish orthodoxe principal of the community of Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland) and taught thereafter the history with the Jewish Theological Seminar of Breslau. Its magnum opus , the History of the Jews , was quickly translated in other languages and woke up in the whole world the interest for the Jewish history. In 1869 the Université of Breslau granted the title of professor emeritus to him, in 1888 it was named Honoraire member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.

Biography

Graetz accepted its first education with Zerkov, where his/her parents had settled and in 1831 it was sent to Wollstein, where it attended the Yeshivah until in 1836, acquiring profane knowledge by its private studies. The Neunzehn Briefe von Ben Uziel (see Samson Raphael Hirsch) made on him a powerful impression and it solved to prepare with theoretical studies to be made the champion of the cause of the orthodoxe Judaism. Its intention first was to go to Prague, where attracted it the reputation of its worthy yeshibah and the possibilities of study offered by the university. Having been refused by the civils servant of immigration, it returned in Zerkov and wrote with S.R. Hirsch, then rabbi of Oldenburg, while announcing to him its desire. Hirsch offered to him to lodge it at his place. Graetz there arrived on May 8th, 1837 and spent three years near its owner as raises, companion and copyist. In 1840 it accepted a tutorship in a family with Ostrowo and, in October 1842, it entered to the University of Breslau.

In this time the controversy between the reforming Judaism and orthodoxy was with its roof and Graetz, faithful to the principles of Hirsch of which it was imbu, began its literary career with its contributions to Orient, directed by Julius Fürst, where it criticized the party of the Reform severely, as well as the edition of Mishnah by Geiger (Orient, 1844). These contributions and its defense of the preserving cause at the time of the rabbinical conferences made it popular among the orthodoxe party. It was especially the case when it made countryside so that one gave a vote of confidence to Zacharias Frankel after it had left the conference of Frankfurt because of the position which the majority had taken on the question of the Hebraic language. After Graetz had obtained its doctorate at the University of Iéna (with the thesis De Auctoritate and VI Quam Gnosis in Judaismum Habuerit 1845, published one year later under the title Gnosticismus und Judenthum), it was named director of a religious school rested by the conservatives. The same year it was invited to preach a sermon of test in front of the congregation of Gleiwitz, in Silesia, but failed completely.

It remained in Breslau until in 1848, year when, on the council of a friend, it went to Vienna, proposing to follow a career of journalist. In way it stopped with Nikolsburg, where Samson Raphael Hirsch resided like rabbi as a chief of Moravie. Hirsch, which then planned to create a rabbinical seminar, temporarily employed Graetz as teacher with Nikolsburg and gave him then a position as Jewish principal in the city close to Lundenburg (1850). In October 1850, Graetz Maria with Marie Monasch, of Krotoschin. It seems that the departure of Hirsch de Nikolsburg had an influence on the position of Graetz; because in 1852 this last left Lundenburg and went to Berlin, where it made to conference series on the Jewish history in front of the students future rabbis, with little success, seems it. During this time its apology for the course of Frankel had put it in close relationship with this last, for the review of which he often wrote articles; consequently it was named in 1854 member of the teaching personnel to the seminar with Breslau, chaired by Frankel. It kept this situation until its death, teaching the history and the interpretation of the Bible, with a preparatory course on Talmud. In 1869 the government conferred the title of professor to him and as from this moment it made a course at the University of Breslau.

In 1872 Graetz went to Palestine in company of his/her friend Gottschalck Levy of Berlin, with an aim of studying the sites of the first period of the Jewish history, which it treated in volumes one and two of his history, published in 1874-76; these volumes completed this great work. During this time in Palestine it gave the first impulse to the foundation of an orphanage. It took also a great interest with progress of the Alliance Universal Jew and took part like deputy in convention joined together in Paris in 1878 to come to assistance of the Jews from Romania. The name of Graetz was proposed in the controversy anti-semite, especially after Treitschke had published its Ein Wort über Unser Judenthum (1879-1880), in which, referring to the eleventh volume of the history, had shown Graetz of hatred against Christianity and prejudices with regard to the German people, seeing in him a proof that the Jews could never be assimilated to their environment.

This attack against Graetz had a great effect on the public. Even friends of the Jews, like Mommsen, and of lawyers of Judaism inside the community highly condemned the too impassioned expressions of Graetz. It was because of this relative unpopularity that one did not invite it to take part in the commission created by the union of German Jewish congregations (Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeindebund) aiming at promoting the study of the history of the Jews of Germany (1885). Despite everything, its fame of extended to the foreign countries; and the promoters of the anglo-Jewish Exposure invited it in 1887 to open the Exposure with a conference. The seventieth birthday of its birth was the occasion for his/her friends and its disciples to testify the universal regard to him in which they held it; and a volume of scientific tests was published in its honor (Jubelschrift zum 70. Geburtstage of Prof Dr. H. Graetz, Breslau, 1887). One year later () it was named honorary member of the Spanish Academy, to which, like marks gratitude, it dedicated the third edition of the eighth volume of its history. In 1891 it spent the summer as usual to Carlsbad; but of the alarming symptoms of disease of the heart forced it to stop the cure at a watering-place. It went to Munich to visit his son Léo, professor at the university of this city and died there after a short disease. It was buried in Breslau. In addition to Léo, it left three wire and a girl.

An English edition in five volumes was published in London into 1891-92 pennies the title of History off the Jews from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (History of the Jews since the times most moved back until our days), in 5 volumes, by professor H. Graetz, published and partially translated by Bella Löwy. According to a recension in the edition from January-April 1893 of the Quarterly Review (Re-examined quarterly), “the work was under press in its english language version and had received the last author's proofs, when Graetz died in September 1891”.

Interpretation

The historical studies of Graetz, going up until biblical times, quite naturally led it to deal with interpretation. As of the years 1850 he had written in the treating Monatsschrift tests of interpretation, like “Fälschungen in dem Texte DER LXX” (1853) and “Die Grosse Versammlung: Keneset Hagedola” (1857); and with its translation and its comments of the Ecclésiaste and the Cantique of the Canticles (Breslau, 1871) it began the publication of distinct work of interpretation. A comment and a translation of the Psaumes followed (ib. 1882-83). Towards the end of its life it planned an edition of the whole Hebraic Bible with its own textual corrections. A leaflet of this work appeared in 1891. Little time before the death of the author, a part, Isaïe and Jérémie, was published in the form in which the author had intended to publish it; the remainder contained only the textual notes, and not the text itself. It was published, under the title Emendationes in Plerosque Sacræ Scripturæ Veteris Testamenti Libros by W. To cover (Breslau, 1892-94).

What characterizes more interpretation of Graetz, it is the audacity of its textual corrections, which often substitute for the text massoretic something of conjectural, even if it always consulted the old versions carefully. It also fixed with too much insurance the date of a biblical book or of such or such passage, when at best that could be only one probable assumption. Thus its assumption on the origin of Ecclésiaste, located at the time of Hérode the Large one, is hardly justifiable even if it is presented in a brilliant way. Its textual corrections show a large smoothness and with time they gained in respect and acceptance.

Work

History of the Jews

The posterity was especially to know Graetz like the large Jewish historian, although it had also completed a considerable work in the field of interpretation. Its Geschichte der Juden replaced all old similar work, in particular that of Jost, its time an extremely remarkable work; and it was translated in a great number of languages. The fourth volume, which started with the period following the destruction of Jerusalem, was published the first. It appeared in 1853; but the publication was not a financial success and the editor refused to continue. Fortunately a company of publication l'Institut zur Förderung der Israelitischen Litteratur, founded by Ludwig Philippson, had just been born and she undertook to publish later volumes, while starting with the third, which covered the period active of dead of Judas Macchabée to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. It was published in 1856 and was followed fifth, after which volumes appeared in a regular succession until eleventh, which was published in 1870 and led the history until 1848, year when the author stopped, not wanting to include alive people.

In spite of this reserve it did not offend of it less seriously the Liberal party, which concludes from the articles that Graetz published in the Monatsschrift, that it showed little sympathy to the reforming elements, and who thus refused to publish volume unless the manuscript was not subjected to him for examination. Graetz having refused, the volume published without the contest of the company of publication. Volumes I and II were published, as it is known as higher, after Graetz had returned from Palestine. These volumes, whose second makes some was composed of two parts, appeared in 1872-75 and finished this impressive task. For a public more popular Graetz published thereafter a summary of its work under the title Volksthümliche Geschichte der Juden, where it led the history until its time.

A translation in English was started with S. Tuska, which in 1867 off published in Cincinnati a translation partial of volume IX pennies the title Influence Judaism one the Protesting Reformation (Influence of the Judaism on the Protestante Reformation. The fourth volume was translated by James K. Gutheim under the auspices of the Company of American Jewish Publication, the title being History off the Jews from the Down-fall off the Jewish State to the Conclusion off the Talmud (Histoire of the Jews since the Ruin of the Jewish State until the completion of Talmud New York, 1873).

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