Márkus Horovitz Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Rabbi
Markus Horovitz
Birth Date:5 March 1844
Birth Place:Ladány (Tiszaladány), Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Kaisertum Österreich
Death Date:27 March 1910
Death Place:Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
Nationality:Hungarian
Occupation:Rabbi, Historian
Known For:Promoting coexistence between Orthodox and Reform factions in Frankfurt
Rabbi
Alma Mater:University of Tübingen
Children:Josef Horovitz
Works:Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinde in Eisenstadt, Frankfurter Rabbinen, Jüdische Ärzte in Frankfurt a. M., Matteh Lewi, Die Wohlthätigkeitspflege bei den Juden im alten Frankfurt, Die Frankfurter Rabbinerversammlung vom Jahre 1603, Die Inschriften des alten Friedhofes der israelitischen Gemeinde zu Frankfurt a. M.

Markus Horovitz (Hungarian: Horovitz Márkus, 5 March 1844 27 March 1910)[1] was a Hungarian rabbi and historian.

Biography

He was born at Ladány (Tiszaladány), 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 (the latter under the direction of Israel Hildesheimer).[1] He studied (1868–71) 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 ("Religious Society of Israelites"). 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 (in Izraelita Közlöny, 1869), Horovitz published the following works:

Resources

Notes and References

  1. "Horovitz, Marcus Mordechai" . In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (Eds.), Die Rabbiner im Deutschen Reich, 1871-1945. Walter de Gruyter, 2009. Vol. 1 (A-K), entry 2251, p. 294-296; here, p. 294.