Adolf Rosenzweig


Rabbi Dr. Adolf Rosenzweig was a German moderate liberal rabbi and Biblical and Talmudic scholar. In his publications he dealt with historical and archaeological matters.

Biography

Adolf Aharon Rosenzweig was born in Turdossin, Hungary. He studied at the gymnasium at Pest, later at the Yeshiva of Pressburg. After graduation he went to Berlin, where he studied philosophy and Oriental languages and literatures at the University of Berlin, and theology at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. Finally he earned his PhD.
On October 20, 1874, he entered upon the rabbinate of Pasewalk, Province of Pomerania, whence he was called to Birnbaum, Posen. In 1879 he went to Teplitz, Bohemia, and in 1887 he accepted a rabbinate at the New Synagogue in Oranienburger Straße, Berlin, where he remained until his death in 1918. There he came to be known as an outstanding preacher. He was also a prolific author, writing on history and archaeology as well as religious subjects.
Rosenzweig died in 1918, at 68, and was buried in Berlin. On his gravestone was written: "The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips".

Family

Rosenzweig's son, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Rosenzweig, was a spiritual leader.
His daughter, Hedwig, married Rabbi Juda Bergmann – Galician-born, studied in the Rabbinical Seminary in Vienna; rabbi in Berlin from 1908; emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933. They had 8 children. Their elder son, Ernst David Bergmann, was a professor of Organic Chemistry in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and often considered the father of the Israeli nuclear program. His brother, Felix Eliezer Bergmann, raised in Berlin, PhD in chemistry and MD from the University of Berlin in 1933; chair of Pharmacology in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Arthur Bergmann was a lawyer who defended Palestinian prisoners and initiated several humanitarian projects for blind Palestinian children. Theodor Bergmann is a professor of Agricultural Economy in the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart since 1981.
Alfred Bergmann :de:Alfred Bergmann was a member of the German communist opposition like his younger brothers Theodor and Josef. Alfred was forced to emigrate to Switzerland from where he was handed over to the German Gestapo in 1942 and murdered in prison. Josef Bergmann :de:Josef Bergmann, also a member of the German communist opposition, emigrated with his brother Theodor to Sweden and returned to Germany after WW II.

Works