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, 1873
Frankfurter Rabbinen , 4 parts, Frankfurt am Main, 1882–1885
Jüdische Ärzte in Frankfurt a. M. , 1886
Matteh Lewi , a work in Hebrew on letters of divorce, Frankfurt am Main, 1891
Matteh Lewi , a work in Hebrew containing rabbinic responsa, Frankfurt am Main, 1933
Matteh Lewi , a reprint of work in Hebrew containing rabbinic responsa, Jerusalem, 1972
Die Wohlthätigkeitspflege bei den Juden im alten Frankfurt , 1896
Zur Statistik der jüdischen Bevölkerung im alten Frankfurt , 1896
Die Frankfurter Rabbinerversammlung vom Jahre 1603, 1897
Die 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.

Resources

"", by Aron Freimann and Isidore Singer, Jewish Encyclopedia
" ", Infobank Judengasse, website of the Museum Judengasse, branch of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt
at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York

Category:1844 births
Category:1910 deaths
Category:19th-century Hungarian historians
Category:Hungarian rabbis
Category:19th-century German rabbis
Category:Jewish historians
Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism
Category:University of Tübingen alumni
Category:People from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County
Category:Rabbis from Frankfurt
Category:Burials at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Frankfurt