Leopold Zunz

Leopold Zunz(Hebrew:יום טוב צונץ—Yom Tov Tzuntz,Yiddish:ליפמן צונץ—Lipmann Zunz;10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (Wissenschaft des Judentums), thecriticalinvestigation ofJewish literature,hymnology and ritual.Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism.

Leopold Zunz
Portrait byMoritz Daniel Oppenheim
Personal
Born	10 August 1794 Detmold
Died	17 March 1886 Berlin
Religion	Judaism
Nationality	German
Spouse	Adelheid Beermann (m. 1822)
Occupation	Rabbi, writer, activist

Biography

Leopold Zunz was born atDetmold,the son ofTalmudscholar Immanuel Menachem Zunz (1759–1802) and Hendel Behrens (1773–1809), the daughter of Dov Beer,an assistant cantor of the Detmold community.The year following his birth his family moved toHamburg,where, as a young boy, he began learning Hebrew grammar, thePentateuch,and the Talmud.His father, who was his first teacher, died in July 1802, when Zunz was not quite eight years old.He subsequently gained admission to the Jewish "free school" (Freischule) founded by Philipp Samson, inWolfenbüttel.Departing from home in July 1803, he saw his mother for the last time (she died in 1809 during his years in Wolfenbüttel).A turning point in Zunz's development came in 1807, whenSamuel Meyer Ehrenberg,a reform-minded educator, took over the directorship of the Samson School. Ehrenberg reorganized the curriculum, introducing, alongside traditional learning, new subjects such as religion, history, geography, French, and German; he became Zunz's mentor, and they remained friends until Ehrenberg's death in 1853.

The summer of 1811 is noteworthy as the time when Zunz made his first acquaintance withJohann Christoph Wolf'sBibliotheca Hebræa,which, together withDavid Gans'sTzemach David,gave him his first introduction to Jewish literature and the first impulse to think of the "Science of Judaism."

He settled inBerlinin 1815, studying at theUniversity of Berlinand obtaining adoctoratefrom theUniversity of Halle.He wasordainedby the Hungarian rabbiAaron Chorin,an early supporter of religious reform, and served for two years teaching and giving sermons in the Beer reformed synagogue in Berlin. He found the career uncongenial, and in 1840 he was appointed director of aLehrerseminar,a post which relieved him from pecuniary troubles. Zunz was always interested in politics, and in 1848 addressed many public meetings. In 1850 he resigned his headship of the Teachers' Seminary, and was awarded a pension. Throughout his early and married life he was the champion of Jewish rights, and he did not withdraw from public affairs until 1874, the year of the death of his wife Adelheid Beermann, whom he had married in 1822.

Together with other young men, among them the poetHeinrich Heine,Zunz founded theVerein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden(The Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews) alongsideJoel Abraham List,Isaac Marcus Jost,andEduard Gansin Berlin in 1819. In 1823, Zunz became the editor of theZeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums(Journal for the Science of Judaism). The ideals of thisVereinwere not destined to bear religious fruit, but the "Science of Judaism" survived. Zunz "took no large share inJewish reform",but never lost faith in the regenerating power of"science"as applied to the traditions and literary legacies of the ages. He influenced Judaism from the study rather thanfrom the pulpit.

Although affiliated with the Reform movement, Zunz appeared to show little sympathy for it, though this has been attributed to his disdain for ecclesiastical ambition and fears that rabbinical autocracy would result from the Reform crusade. Further,Isidore SingerandEmil Hirschhave stated that "the point of (Geiger's) protest against Reform was directed againstSamuel Holdheimand the position maintained by this leader as an autonomous rabbi. "Later in life Zunz went so far as to refer to rabbis assoothsayers and quacks.

The violent outcry raised against the Talmud by some of the principal spirits of the Reform party was repugnant to Zunz's historic sense. Zunz himself was temperamentally inclined to assign a determinative potency to sentiment, this explaining his tender reverence for ceremonial usages. Although Zunz kept to the Jewish ritual practises, he understood them as symbols (see among others his meditation on tefillin, reprinted in "Gesammelte Schriften," ii. 172-176). This contrasts with the traditional view of the validity of divine ordinances according to which the faithful are bound to observe without inquiry into their meaning. His position accordingly approached that of the symbolists among the reformers who insisted that symbols had their function, provided their suggestive significance was spontaneously comprehensible. He emphasized most strongly the need of a moral regeneration of the Jews.

He wrote precise philological studies but also impassioned speeches on the Jewish nation and history that had an influence on later Jewish historians. Zunz wrote in 1855:

"If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes precedence of all the nations; if the duration of sorrows and the patience with which they are borne ennoble, the Jews can challenge the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in the possession of a few classic tragedies—what shall we say to a National Tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes?"

In 1840 he became director of the Berlin Jewish Teachers' Seminary.

He was friendly with the traditional Enlightenment figureNachman KrochmalwhoseMoreh Nebuke ha-Zeman(Lemberg, 1851), was edited, according to the author's last will, by his friend Leopold Zunz.

Zunz died inBerlinin 1886.

Leopold Zunz on his 90th birthday, 10 August 1884

Works

First edition of Namen der Juden, 1837, in the collection of theJewish Museum of Switzerland.

Zunz’ famous article “Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur” ( “On Rabbinical Literature” ), published in 1818, established the intellectual agenda of the Wissenschaft des Judentums ( “Science of Judaism” ), while adumbrating the main themes of his own future work as well. Even at this early stage of his academic career, Zunz mapped out his concept of the Wissenschaft des Judentums which he intended to serve as a medium for presenting, preserving, and transmitting the corpus of Jewish literary works. Zunz believed that only an academic approach to Jewish texts and a comprehensive and interdisciplinary academic framework would allow for the adequate study of Jewish themes and Judaism.In 1832 appeared "the most important Jewish book published in the 19th century." This was Zunz'sGottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden,i.e. a history of theSermon.It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis (Midrash) and of thesiddur(prayer-book of the synagogue). This book raised Zunz to the supreme position among Jewish scholars. In 1845 appeared hisZur Geschichte und Literatur,in which he threw light on the literary and social history of the Jews. He had visited theBritish Museumin 1846, and this confirmed him in his plan for his third book,Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters(1855). It was from this book thatGeorge Eliottranslated the following opening of a chapter ofDaniel Deronda:"If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes precedence of all the nations...". After its publication Zunz again visited England, and in 1859 issued hisRitus.In this he gives a masterly survey ofsynagogal rites.His last great book was hisLiteraturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie(1865). A supplement appeared in 1867. Besides these works, Zunz published a new translation of theBible,and wrote many essays which were afterwards collected asGesammelte Schriften.

• Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur.Berlin: Maurersche Buchhandlung, 1818.Digital FormSLUB DresdenviaEOD
• Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden historisch entwickelt:ein Beitrag zur Alterthumskunde u. biblischen Kritik, zur Literatur- u. Religionsgeschichte. Berlin: Asher, 1832.Digital FormFreimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt.
  • Translated into Hebrew asהדרשות בישראל והשתלשלותן ההיסטורית(1947, Bialik Institute)
• Namen der Juden: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung,Leipzig, L. Fort, 1837.
• Die vier und zwanzig Bücher der Heiligen Schrift:Nach dem masoretischen Texte / unter der Redaction von Dr. Zunz; übersetzt von H. Arnheim, Dr. Julius Fürst, Dr. M. Sachs. Berlin: Veit, 1837/1839.
• Zur Geschichte und Literatur.Berlin: Veit, 1845.Digital FormFreimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt.
• Predigten gehalten in der neuen Israelitischen Synagoge zu Berlin.Berlin: Schlesinger 1846.
• Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters.Berlin, 1855.Digital FormFreimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt.
• Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg, Inspektor der Samsonschen Freischule zu Wolfenbüttel.Braunschweig: Gebrüder Meyer, 1854.
• Die [sic] Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes geschichtlich entwickelt.Berlin: Springer, 1859. (Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters; Bd. 2)Digital FormFreimann-Sammlung Frankfurt.
• Deutsche Briefe.Leipzig, F.A. Brockhaus, 1872.
• Die Monatstage des Kalenderjahres;ein Andenken an Hingeschiedene. Berlin; M. Poppelauer, 1872.
• Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie.Berlin: Gerschel, 1865, mit einem Ergänzungsband 1867.Digital FormFreimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt.
• Gesammelte Schriften. Berlin: Gerschel, 1875–76,Bd. 1,Bd. 2,Bd.3.Digital Form: Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt.
• Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des JudentumsJg. 1, Heft 1–3, 1822 (not more published). Edited by Leopold Zunz and Eduard Gans.Digital FormCompact Memory, Frankfurt. (About: J. RaphaelDie Zeitschrift des Dr. L. Z.in: Zeitschrift f. d. Geschichte der Juden, Heft 1/1970, Tel Aviv: Olamenu, S. 31–36)

References

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Isidore Singer, Emil G. Hirsch (1901–1906)."Zunz, Leopold".InSinger, Isidore;et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Zunz, Leopold".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1056.
• "Zunz, Leopold",entry by Nahum N. Glatzer and Gregor Pelger,Encyclopaedia Judaica(2nd ed., 2007)
• Leopold Zunz,myjewishlearning
• "Leopold Zunz".bh.org.il.The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.
• Elbogen, Ismar."Leopold Zunz zum Gedächtnis."In: FünfzigterBericht der Lehranstalt fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. Berlin, 1936, 14-32.
• Glatzer, Nahum Norbert(ed.):Leopold and Adelheid Zunz, an account in letters 1815-1885.London: Published for the Institute by the East and West Library, 1958. (Publications of the Leo Baeck Institute of Jews from Germany)
• Glatzer, Nahum Norbert(ed.):Leopold Zunz, Jude, Deutscher, Europäer; ein jüdisches Gelehrtenschicksal des 19. Jahrhunderts in Briefen an Freunde.Tübingen: Mohr, 1964. (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts, 11)
• Michael A. Meyer,The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824,Wayne State University Press, Detroit, (1967) 1984ISBN0-8143-1470-8
• Schorsch, Ismar.Leopold Zunz: creativity in adversity.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.ISBN9780812248531.
• Veltri, Giuseppe."A Jewish Luther? The academic dreams of Leopold Zunz."In:Jewish Studies Quarterly.7/4 (2000), 338-351.
• Vetter, Dieter. "Leopold Zunz. (Mit-)Begründer der Wissenschaft des Judentums." In:Freiburger Rundbrief.13/2 (2006), 111-122.
• Bautz, Traugott, ed. (1998). "ZUNZ, Leopold (eigentlich: Yom Tov [Jomtob] Lipman Z.), jüdischer Gelehrter".Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)(in German). Vol. 14. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 607–627.ISBN3-88309-073-5.
• Wieseltier, Leon. „Etwas über die jüdische Historik.Leopold Zunz and the Inception of Modern Jewish Historiography."In:History and Theory.20/2 (May, 1981), 135-149.

External links

• Guide to the digitizedLeopold and Adelheid Zunz Collectionat the Archives of theLeo Baeck Institute, New York(call number AR 3648)
• Works by Leopold Zunzin the Library Collection of theLeo Baeck Institute, New York.
• Digitized works by Leopold Zunzin theFreimann Collectionat the Judaica Division of the University Library of the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
• The Leopold Zunz Archivesat the Archives of the National Library of Israel (call number ARC. 4* 792).
• Zunz-Moyal-Zentrum,(formerlyLeopold Zunz Center),Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The Leopold Zunz Center had worked on the digitization of the Leopold Zunz Archives at the Nation Library of Israel. The project is currently undergoing a revision.