Márkus Horovitz


Markus Horovitz was a Hungarian rabbi and historian.

Biography

He was born at Ladány, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Kaisertum Österreich. The descendant of a family of scholars, he pursued his rabbinical studies at the yeshivot of Ujhely, Verbé, and Eisenstadt. He studied philosophy and Orientalia at the universities of Vienna, Budapest, and Berlin, taking his PhD degree at Tübingen. In December 1871, he was called as rabbi to Lauenburg in Pomerania; in 1874, to Gnesen, Prussian Posen; and in September 1878, to Frankfurt am Main. At Frankfurt he organized two model religious schools. Horovitz was a director of the Deutsche Rabbinerverband and president of the German Jewish orphanage at Jerusalem. He was the father of Josef Horovitz and the ancestor of the journalist David Horovitz.

Conflict and career

Horovitz was rabbi in Frankfurt at a time when the disagreements between the Orthodox and Reform factions were reaching their peak. Horovitz was appointed to chair a committee on ritual to placate the Orthodox followers of Samson Raphael Hirsch, who were threatening to found a separate community, the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft. He was given authority over the entire community's religious institution, and promoted the construction of a new Orthodox synagogue on the Börneplatz, which was dedicated on 10 September 1882. Horovitz promoted coexistence between the different factions, maintaining that it was possible for a unified community to exist while both sides exercised autonomy over their own institutions.
Horovitz died in Frankfurt in 1910. He was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery, Frankfurt.

Writings

Besides numerous sermons, and essays on the origin of the Hungarian Jews, Horovitz published the following works:Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinde in Eisenstadt, 1869
  • "Jose ben Jose," in Jüdische Presse, 1873Frankfurter Rabbinen, 4 parts, Frankfurt am Main, 1882–1885Jüdische Ärzte in Frankfurt a. M., 1886Matteh Lewi, a work in Hebrew on letters of divorce, Frankfurt am Main, 1891Matteh Lewi, a work in Hebrew containing rabbinic responsa, Frankfurt am Main, 1933Matteh Lewi, a reprint of work in Hebrew containing rabbinic responsa, Jerusalem, 1972Die Wohlthätigkeitspflege bei den Juden im alten Frankfurt, 1896Zur Statistik der jüdischen Bevölkerung im alten Frankfurt, 1896Die Frankfurter Rabbinerversammlung vom Jahre 1603, 1897Die Inschriften des alten Friedhofes der israelitischen Gemeinde zu Frankfurt a. M., 1901
The last work depicts gravestones and inscriptions at the old Battonstraße cemetery, and has, since the destruction of the cemetery by the Nazis, become a vital historical document.

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