Zvi Hirsch Kalischer
Zvi (Zwi) Hirsch Kalischer (March 24 1795 - October 16 1874) was an Orthodox German rabbi and one of Zionism's early pioneers in Germany.
Life
Kalischer was born in Thorn (Toruń) in Prussia (now in Poland). Destined for the rabbinate, he received his Talmudic education from Jacob of Lissa and Rabbi Akiva Eiger of Posen. After his marriage he left Lissa and settled in Thorn, where he spent the rest of his life. Here he took an active interest in the affairs of the Jewish community, and for more than forty years held the office of Rabbinatsverweser ("acting rabbi"). Disinterestedness was a prominent feature of his character; he refused to accept any remuneration for his services. His wife, by means of a small business, provided their meager subsistence.
Works
In his youth he wrote Eben Bochan, a commentary on several juridical themes of the Shulkhan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat (Krotoschin, 1842), and Sefer Moznayim la-Mishpat, a commentary, in three parts on the whole Choshen Mishpat' (parts i. and ii., Krotoschin and Königsberg, 1855; part iii. still in manuscript). He also wrote: glosses on the Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah, published in the new Vilna edition of that work; the Sefer ha-Berit commentary on the Pentateuch; the Sefer Yetzi'at Mitzrayim commentary on the Passover Pesach Haggadah; Chiddushim on several Talmudical treatises; etc. He also contributed largely to Hebrew magazines, as Ha-Maggid, Tziyyon, Ha-'Ibri, and Ha-Lebanon.
Views on the re-settlement of the Land of Israel
Inclined to philosophical speculation, Kalischer studied the systems of medieval and modern Jewish and Christian philosophers, one result being his Sefer Emunah Yesharah an inquiry into Jewish philosophy and theology (2 vols., Krotoschin, 1843, 1871); an appendix to volume 1 contains a commentary (incomplete) on Job and Ecclesiastes. In the midst of his many activities, however, his thoughts centered on one idea: the settlement of the Land of Israel by Jews, in order to provide a home for the homeless Eastern European Jews and transform the many Jewish beggars in the Holy Land into a population able to support itself by agriculture. He proposed:
- To collect money for this purpose from Jews in all countries;
- To buy and cultivate land in Palestine;
- To found an agricultural school, either in Palestine itself or in France; and
- To form a Jewish military guard for the security of the colonies.
He thought the time especially favorable for the carrying out of this idea, as the sympathy of men like Isaac Moïse Crémieux, Moses Montefiore, Edmond James de Rothschild, and Albert Cohn rendered the Jews politically influential. To these and similar Zionist ideals he gave expression in his Derishat Tziyyon (Lyck, 1862), containing three theses:
- The salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only in a natural way — by self-help;
- Colonization (a 19th century term for settlement) in Palestine;
- Admissibility of the observance of sacrifices in Palestine at the present day.
The appendix contains an invitation to the reader to become a member of the colonization societies of Palestine.
This book made a very great impression, especially in the Eastern Europe. It was translated into German by Poper (Thorn, 1865), and a second Hebrew edition was issued by N. Friedland (ib. 1866). Kalischer himself traveled with indefatigable zeal to various German cities for the purpose of establishing colonization societies. It was his influence that caused Chayyim Lurie, in Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1861, to form the first society of this kind, and this was followed by others.
Owing to Kalischer's agitation, the Alliance Israélite Universelle founded the Mikveh Israel agricultural school, the rabbinate of which was offered to him, but he was too old to accept it. Although all these endeavors were not attended with immediate success, Kalischer never lost hope. By exerting a strong influence upon his contemporaries, including such prominent men as Heinrich Grätz, Moses Hess (see Rom und Jerusalem, pp. 117 et seq.), and others, he is considered to have been one of the most important of those who prepared the way for the foundation of modern Zionism.
References
- Bibliography: Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1874, p. 757;
- Jüdischer Volkskalender, pp. 143 et seq., Leipsic, 1899;
- Sefer Anshe Shem, pp. 31a et seq., Warsaw, 1892.S. M. Sc.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)