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56-509: According to Heinrich Graetz , the family is named after the city Batira (בטירא), near Mount Hermon , which was settled by Herod and gave its name to the settlers. However, others disagree with this assessment, as the story involving the family and Hillel the Elder (in which the family is already established as leaders in Jerusalem) takes place near the beginning of Herod's reign, leading to

112-733: A Nazi prison, and a forced labour camp for Jews . Notable Polish sculptor and painter Marcin Rożek , who lived and worked in Wolsztyn, was arrested by the Germans and then imprisoned in the Fort VII in Poznań and the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he died in 1944. The Polish resistance movement was active in the town and its environs. From 1975 to 1998 it was administratively located in

168-674: A centre of wool trade and cloth manufacturing on the road from Poznań to Lusatia , vested with market rights in 1424. Wolsztyn's town privileges were confirmed in 1519. It was a private town of Polish nobility , administratively located in the Kościan County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. A route connecting Warsaw and Poznań with Dresden ran through

224-615: A chronological difficulty. According to the Talmud, in about 30 BCE they served as leaders of the Sanhedrin . However, they were unable to remember the law regarding whether the Passover sacrifice is offered when the 14th of Nisan falls out on Shabbat . Hillel the Elder was able to answer the question for them, and as a result they were demoted from their position and Hillel took their place. As two brothers were not allowed to serve on

280-733: A close. While in Palestine, he gave the first impetus to the foundation of an orphan asylum there. He also took a great interest in the progress of the Alliance Israélite Universelle , and participated as a delegate in the convention assembled at Paris in 1878 in the interest of the Romanian Jews. Graetz's name was prominently mentioned in the anti-Semitic controversy, especially after Treitschke had published his "Ein Wort über Unser Judenthum" (1879–1880), in which

336-470: A copying error in I Corinthians 1:12 which should have referred to a very early Christian teacher. This history of the Jews is not written by a cool observer, but by a warm-hearted Jew. On the other hand, some of these commendable features are at the same time shortcomings. In his introduction to a 1975 volume of Graetz's essays translated into English, rabbi and historian Ismar Schorsch wrote of History of

392-653: A large lake ( Jezioro Wolsztyńskie ; Wolsztyn Lake), next to which is a palace built in Classical style in the early 20th century, now used as a hotel and restaurant, and a park. Nearby tourist destinations include the Pszczew Landscape Park and the Przemęt Landscape Park . The current settlement was established about 1285 on a causeway across the swampy Dojca River, probably by Cistercian monks descending from Obra Abbey. It developed as

448-464: A lecture. His seventieth birthday was the occasion for his friends and disciples to bear testimony to the universal esteem in which he was held among them; and a volume of scientific essays was published in his honor ("Jubelschrift zum 70. Geburtstage des Prof. Dr. H. Graetz," Breslau, 1887). A year later (27 October 1888) he was appointed an honorary member of the Spanish Academy , to which, as

504-508: A preparatory course on the Talmud . In 1869 the government conferred upon him the title of professor, and thenceforward he lectured at Breslau University. In 1872 Graetz went to Palestine in the company of his friend Gottschalck Levy of Berlin , for the purpose of studying the scenes of the earliest period of Jewish history, which he treated in volumes one and two of his history, published in 1874–1876; these volumes brought that great work to

560-554: A pupil, companion, and amanuensis . In 1840 he accepted a tutorship with a family at Ostrowo , and in October 1842 he entered the University of Breslau. At that time the controversy between Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism was at its height, and Graetz, true to the principles which he had imbibed from Hirsch, began his literary career by writing contributions to the "Orient", edited by Julius Fürst , in which he severely criticized

616-529: A suit to be brought against him by Sebastian Brunner for libeling him as an anti-Semite. As Graetz was not an Austrian subject, the suit was nominally brought against Leopold Kompert as editor, and the latter was fined (30 December 1863). Graetz had interpreted Isaiah chapters 52 and 53 to refer not to the personal Messiah , but rather to the entire people of Israel. Graetz and Kompert were brought to court in Vienna for publishing claims that were contrary to

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672-636: A supplement of recent events by Dr. Max Raisin. Rabbi A. B. Rhine provided the English translation. Graetz's historical studies, extending back to Biblical times, naturally led him into the field of exegesis . As early as the fifties he had written in the Monatsschrift essays dealing with exegetical subjects, as "Fälschungen in dem Texte der LXX." (1853) and "Die Grosse Versammlung: Keneset Hagedola" (1857); and with his translation of and commentaries on Ecclesiastes and Canticles (Breslau, 1871) he began

728-560: A token of his gratitude, he dedicated the third edition of the eighth volume of his history. As usual he spent the summer of 1891 in Carlsbad ; but alarming symptoms of heart disease forced him to discontinue his use of the waters. He went to Munich to visit his son Leo , a professor at the university of that city , and died there after a brief illness. He was buried in Breslau. Besides Leo, Graetz left three sons and one daughter. Graetz

784-827: A translation of part of Vol. IX under the title "Influence of Judaism on the Protestant Reformation ". The fourth volume was translated by James K. Gutheim under the auspices of the American Jewish Publication Society , the title being "History of the Jews from the Down-fall of the Jewish State to the Conclusion of the Talmud" (New York, 1873). A five-volume English edition was published in London in 1891-92 as History of

840-789: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz ( German: [ɡʁɛts] ; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkopolski ), Grand Duchy of Posen , in Prussia (now in Poland ), he attended Breslau University , but since Jews at that time were barred from receiving Ph.D.s there, he obtained his doctorate from

896-450: Is a town in western Poland , on the western edge of Greater Poland Voivodeship . It is the seat of Wolsztyn County , and of the smaller administrative district of Gmina Wolsztyn . The town is situated within the historic Greater Poland region, located on the small Dojca river, a headstream of the Obra , about 72 kilometres (45 mi) southwest of Poznań . The municipal area includes

952-473: Is chiefly known as the Jewish historian, although he did considerable work in the field of exegesis also. His Geschichte der Juden superseded all former works of its kind, notably that of Jost , in its day a very remarkable production; and it has been translated into many languages. The fourth volume, beginning with the period following the destruction of Jerusalem, was published first. It appeared in 1853; but

1008-576: Is guilty of sloppiness of scholarship: e.g., Graetz omits the second halves of quotations which, if quoted in their entirety, contradict his thesis. Graetz claims, on the basis of quotations from certain Talmudic sages, that they "were wont to do" something – despite sources explicitly to the contrary – and goes on to develop these suppositions into theories affecting the entire Torah tradition. Hirsch accuses Graetz of fabricating dates, rearranging generations, overstating results, misinterpreting and distorting

1064-517: The Monatsschrift , that he would show little sympathy for the Reform element, and therefore refused to publish the volume unless the manuscript was submitted for examination. This Graetz refused to do; and the volume therefore appeared without the support of the publication society. Volumes I and II were published, as stated above, after Graetz had returned from Palestine. These volumes, of which

1120-671: The Second Polish Republic , and the town returned to Poland several weeks later, when it was captured by Polish insurgents on January 5, 1919 during the Greater Poland Uprising . With the 1939 Invasion of Poland , which started World War II , the town was occupied by Germany on 7 September 1939 and directly incorporated into the Nazi German Reichsgau Wartheland until the end of the war in 1945. The Polish population

1176-529: The Temple of Jerusalem . This was published in 1856 and was followed by the fifth, after which the volumes appeared in regular succession up to the eleventh, which was published in 1870 and brought the history down to 1848, with which year the author closed, not wishing to include living persons. In spite of this reserve he gravely offended the Liberal party, which inferred, from articles that Graetz contributed to

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1232-738: The University of Jena . After 1845 he was principal of the Jewish Orthodox school of the Breslau community, and later taught history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). His magnum opus History of the Jews was the first Jewish history which threaded together a unified national history across the global Jewish communities. It was quickly translated into other languages and ignited worldwide interest in Jewish history , and later

1288-751: The Zielona Góra Voivodeship . The town has a Baroque parish church of the Immaculate Conception dating from the 18th century, a historical palace of the Gajewski and Mycielski noble families, which now houses a hotel, with an adjacent park, as well as several museums. The railway line from Wolsztyn to Zbąszyń opened in 1886. The locomotive roundhouse in Wolsztyn is the only place in Europe to supply standard gauge steam locomotives for regular, timetabled train services on

1344-582: The national railway network . As of Autumn 2023 these services run to Leszno and Poznań , using timetabled steam engines. The site also includes a railway museum featuring restored locomotives. Since 1993 the Polish State Railways organises an annual parade of locomotives, which takes place at the start of May. The 2007 event, which also celebrated the roundhouse's centenary, attracted about 20,000 visitors. The local (Polish) website has up-to-date information about services/events. The town

1400-540: The "lachrymose conception of Jewish history," sometimes identified with Heinrich Graetz. In a 1975 interview Baron said: "Suffering is part of the destiny [of the Jews], but so is repeated joy as well as ultimate redemption." According to Arthur Hertzberg , Baron was writing social history, insisting that spiritual creativity and the political situation were all borne by a living society and its changing forms. Wolsztyn Wolsztyn [ˈvɔlʂtɨn] ( German : Wollstein )

1456-461: The Catholic faith, as well as contradicting Jewish tradition. Viennese rabbis Isaak Noah Mannheimer and Lazar Horowitz defended Graetz, and Azriel Hildesheimer criticized them for doing so; Isaac Hirsch Weiss published a pamphlet entitled Neẓaḥ Yisrael in support of their testimony. This case, known as the "Kompert Affair," was important in defining the wedge between Orthodox Judaism and

1512-447: The Jews , opposed the view of Jewish history as being 'all darkness and no light' and sought to restore balance, by writing a social history. Baron strove to integrate the religious dimension of Jewish history into a full picture of Jewish life and to integrate the history of Jews into the wider history of the eras and societies in which they lived. Baron brought very distinctive views to his scholarship. He inveighed against what he termed

1568-473: The Jews : "[It] still remains, a century later, the best single introduction to the totality of Jewish history.... The extraordinary combination of narrative skill and basic research which was the hallmark of Graetz's work has never been matched." Some characterize Graetz's main elements of Jewish experience through the ages to be 'suffering and spiritual scholarship', while later Jewish scholarly works like Salo W. Baron 's 1937 A Social and Religious History of

1624-734: The Jews from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (5 vols.; edited and in part translated by Bella Löwy). According to a review in the January–April 1893 edition of Quarterly Review , it "was passing through the press in its English version, and had received the author's final touches, when Graetz died in September 1891". In 1919, the Jordan Publishing Co. of New York published a two-volume "improved" edition, with

1680-838: The Reform party, as well as Geiger 's text-book of the Mishnah ("Orient", 1844). These contributions and his championship of the Conservative cause during the time of the Reform Rabbinical Conferences made him popular with the Orthodox party. This was especially the case when he agitated for a vote of confidence to be given to Zecharias Frankel after he had left in protest the Second Rabbinical Conference in Frankfurt in 1845 after

1736-508: The Sanhedrin at the same time, this suggests that the phrase "Sons of Bathyra" was not a patronymic , but a family name ( nomen gentilicium ). About 100 years later, the sons of Bathyra are recorded disputing with Johanan ben Zakkai whether the shofar should be blown when Rosh Hashana falls on Shabbat. Since this takes place about 100 years after the story involving Hillel, the sons of Bathyra mentioned here must have been descendants of

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1792-463: The Talmudic tradition to serve his narrative needs. David N. Myers argues that Hirsch's criticisms of his one-time student's work were motivated by a complete difference of opinion on the value of historicism. "Hirsch came to regard his erstwhile disciple as the embodiment of history's destructive tendencies." A translation into English was begun by S. Tuska , who in 1867 published in Cincinnati

1848-440: The cause of Orthodox Judaism . His first intention was to go to Prague , to which place he was attracted by the fame of its old yeshivah and the facilities afforded by the university. Being rejected by the immigration officers, he returned to Zerkov and wrote to Hirsch, then rabbi of Oldenburg, indicating his desire. Hirsch offered him a place in his house. Graetz arrived there on May 8, 1837, and spent three years with his patron as

1904-474: The earlier leaders of the Sanhedrin, who probably still retained some of their ancestors' reputation. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Singer, Isidore ; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Bathyra" . The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls. This biographical article about a rabbi from the Middle East

1960-422: The early years of the anti-Semitic movement he wrote, besides the articles in which he defended himself against the accusations of Treitschke, an anonymous essay entitled "Briefwechsel einer Englischen Dame über Judenthum und Semitismus" (Stuttgart, 1883). To supplement his lectures on Jewish literature he published an anthology of neo-Hebraic poetry under the title "Leḳeṭ Shoshannim" (Breslau, 1862), in which he made

2016-416: The editorship in 1869, Graetz took over the task himself for the next 18 years, until he reached the age of 70 in 1887. Graetz's activity was not limited to his special field. He enriched other branches of Jewish science and wrote here and there on general literature or on questions of the day. To the field of general literature also belongs his essay on " Shylock ," published in the Monatsschrift , 1880. In

2072-504: The latter left Lundenburg and went to Berlin, where he delivered a course of less than successful lectures on Jewish history to rabbinical students. His advocacy of Frankel's approach had brought him into close contact with the latter, for whose magazine he frequently wrote articles; and accordingly in 1854 he was appointed a member of the teaching staff of the seminary at Breslau, over which Frankel presided. In this position he remained up to his death, teaching history and Bible exegesis, with

2128-512: The latter, referring to the eleventh volume of the history, accused Graetz of hatred of Christianity and of bias against the German people , quoting him as a proof that the Jews could never assimilate themselves to their surroundings. This arraignment of Graetz had a decided effect upon the public. Even friends of the Jews, like Mommsen , and advocates of Judaism within the Jewish fold expressed their condemnation of Graetz's passionate language. It

2184-411: The leadership of Frankel. In the same year he was invited to preach a trial sermon before the congregation of Gleiwitz , Silesia , but failed completely. He remained in Breslau until 1848, when, upon the advice of a friend, he went to Vienna, purposing to follow a journalistic career. On the way he stopped at Nikolsburg , where Hirsch was residing as Moravian chief rabbi. Hirsch, who then contemplated

2240-595: The majority had decided against prayers in Hebrew, and for prayers in the vernacular. After Graetz had obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Jena (his dissertation being "De Auctoritate et Vi Quam Gnosis in Judaismum Habuerit," 1845; published a year later under the title " Gnosticismus und Judenthum"), he was made principal of a religious school founded by the Conservatives in Breslau, again under

2296-942: The mistake of reading the verses of a poem horizontally instead of vertically, which mistake Geiger mercilessly criticized ( Jüdische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben , 1, p. 68-75). A very meritorious work was his edition of the Jerusalem Talmud in one volume (Krotoschin, 1866). A bibliography of his works has been given by Israel Abrahams in The Jewish Quarterly Review (4, pp. 194–203). Graetz's essay "Die Verjüngung des jüdischen Stammes", in Wertheimer-Kompert's Jahrbuch für Israeliten , Vol. X, Vienna, 1863 (reprinted with comments by Th. Zlocisti, in Jüdischer Volks-Kalender , p. 99, Brünn, 1903), caused

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2352-413: The nascent Conservative Judaism championed by the likes of Graetz and Zecharias Frankel. Thus, within the Jewish fold the lawsuit also had its consequences, as the Orthodox raised against Graetz the accusation of heresy because he had denied the personal character of the prophetic Messiah . Graetz's history became very popular and influential in its time. The material for Jewish history being so varied,

2408-480: The period of a Biblical book or a certain passage, when at best there could only be a probable hypothesis. Thus his hypothesis of the origin of Ecclesiastes at the time of Herod the Great , while brilliant in its presentation, is hardly tenable. His textual emendations display fine tact, and of late they have become more and more respected and adopted. Graetz had contributed scholarly articles on Judaism and history to

2464-465: The publication of separate exegetical works. A commentary and translation of the Psalms followed (ib. 1882–83). Toward the end of his life he planned an edition of the whole Hebrew Bible with his own textual emendations . A prospectus of this work appeared in 1891. Shortly before the author's death, a part of it, Isaiah and Jeremiah , was issued in the form in which the author had intended to publish it;

2520-406: The publication was not a financial success, and the publisher refused to continue it. However, the publication society Institut zur Förderung der Israelitischen Litteratur , founded by Ludwig Philippson , had just come into existence, and it undertook the publication of the subsequent volumes, beginning with the third, which covered the period from the death of Judas Maccabeus to the destruction of

2576-632: The rest contained only the textual notes, not the text itself. It was edited, under the title "Emendationes in Plerosque Sacræ Scripturæ Veteris Testamenti Libros," by W. Bacher (Breslau, 1892–94). The most characteristic features of Graetz's exegesis are his bold textual emendations, which often substitute something conjectural for the Masoretic text, although he always carefully consulted the ancient versions. He also determined with too much certainty

2632-511: The scholarly periodicals started by Frankel since his graduation from the university in 1846. He continued steadily in this task once the Monatsschrift für die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums was firmly established under Frankel's editorship in Breslau, between 1851 and 1853. Frankel and Graetz practically took over the periodical with the leadership of the concept of Wissenschaft des Judentums from its Reform initiators, Leopold Zunz and Eduard Gans . After Frankel's retirement from

2688-624: The second practically consisted of two, appeared in 1872–1875, and completed the stupendous undertaking. For more popular purposes Graetz published later an abstract of his work under the title Volksthümliche Geschichte der Juden , in which he brought the history down to his own time. The fourth volume of the History of the Jews received a detailed review by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in a series of essays in Vols. II-IV (1855-8) of his monthly journal Jeschurun . In these essays, Hirsch argues that Graetz

2744-416: The sources so scattered in the literatures of all nations, and the chronological sequence so often interrupted, made the presentation of this history as a whole a very difficult undertaking. Graetz performed his task skillfully, mastering most of the details while not losing sight of the whole. Another reason for the popularity of the work is its sympathetic treatment. Also, Graetz has been credited with finding

2800-403: The start of a rabbinical seminary, employed Graetz temporarily as teacher at Nikolsburg, and made him principal of the Jewish school in the neighboring city of Lundenburg (1850). In October 1850, Graetz married Marie Monasch, the daughter of the printer and publisher B. L. Monasch, of Krotoschin . It seems that Hirsch's departure from Nikolsburg had an influence on Graetz's position; for in 1852

2856-584: The town in the 18th century and King Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. It was annexed by Prussia in the course of the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. After the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806 , it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw , and after its dissolution in 1815 it was reannexed by Prussia, as part of the Grand Duchy of Posen . Wolsztyn, then called Wollstein ,

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2912-550: Was due to this comparative unpopularity that Graetz was not invited to join the commission created by the union of German Jewish congregations ( Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeindebund ) for the promotion of the study of the history of the Jews of Germany (1885). On the other hand, his fame spread to foreign countries; and the promoters of the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition invited him in 1887 to open the Exhibition with

2968-404: Was sent to Wollstein , where he attended the yeshivah up to 1836, acquiring secular knowledge by private study. The Neunzehn Briefe über Judenthum ("Nineteen Letters on Judaism") by Samson Raphael Hirsch , which were published under the pseudonym of "Ben Uziel" at Altona in 1836, made a powerful impression on him; and he resolved to prepare himself for academic studies in order to champion

3024-536: Was subjected to various crimes , including arrests, expulsions and deportations to Nazi concentration camps . The Germans established and operated a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish POWs in the present-day district of Komorowo, which then served a transit camp for expelled Poles from the region, and was eventually converted into the Stalag XXI-C POW camp for Polish, French , British , Italian , American and Norwegian POWs. The occupiers also operated

3080-736: Was the district capital of Kreis Bomst , a Prussian district which, at the time, had approximately equal numbers of Poles and Germans. With the Prussian Province of Posen it became part of the German Empire in 1871 and a target of the Germanisation policies carried out by the German Eastern Marches Society ( Hakata ). After World War I , in November 1918, Poland regained independence as

3136-462: Was used as a textbook in Israeli schools. As a result, Graetz was widely considered a Zionist or proto-Zionist, but historians have also noted his support for European assimilation. In 1869 the University of Breslau (Wrocław) granted him the title of Honorary Professor. In 1888 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences . Graetz received his first instruction at Zerkow , where his parents had relocated, and in 1831

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