Baruch Placzek

Baruch Jacob Placzek (1 October 1834 – 17 September 1922), also known by the pen name Benno Planek, was a Moravian rabbi, author, poet, orator, and naturalist. He was the last Landesrabbiner of Moravia, which position he held from 1884 until his death. As a writer, he published numerous sermons, speeches, and obituaries, as well as scientific, lyrical, and narrative works.

Biography Early life and education Baruch Jacob Placzek was born in Weisskirchen (now Hranice, Czech Republic) to Anna and Abraham Placzek, Landesrabbiner of Moravia. He was taught Talmud by his father in Boskowitz, and educated at the gymnasia of Nikolsburg and Brünn. He then attended the Universities of Vienna and Leipzig, where he completed a PhD under the supervision of Wilhelm Wachsmuth in November 1856, with a dissertation on the cultural history of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Career Placzek afterwards taught at a Jewish school in Frankfurt, and founded a in Hamburg in 1858. In 1861 he became Chief Rabbi of Brünn (Brno), a position he held for the next forty-four years. He meanwhile succeeded his father as Landesrabbiner of Moravia in 1884, in which role he was an adherent of moderate religious reform. He promoted the foundation of the seminary in Vienna, for which he served as curator, and was a founder of a number of philanthropic societies.

In part under the pseudonym Benno Planek, he besides published the collections of poetry Im Eruw (1867) and Stimmungsbilder (1872), the novel Der Takif (1895), and other works, several of which were translated into English, French, and Hebrew. As a naturalist, he gave natural science lectures at the Natural History Society of Brünn, and contributed to the journals and The Popular Science Monthly. He was a close friend of Gregor Mendel, and corresponded with Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution he promoted. In one article, Placzek attempted to show that the rabbis in the Talmud put forward ideas akin to Darwinism.

Placzek received an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1907. He was a knight of the Order of Franz Joseph, and an honorary member of several political societies.

Death and legacy Placzek died in 1922 at the age of 87, predeceased by his wife Caroline and son Oswald. He was survived by his children Sarah, Linda, Ida, Emma, Alfred, and Irma, at least two of whom died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto during the Holocaust. Among his grandchildren were the physicist George Placzek (1905–1955) and the architect and art historian (1913–2000). His nephew Leo Baeck would go on to serve as President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

A bust of Placzek's likeness was unveiled in the entrance hall of the Brno Jewish Community Centre in 2012.

Selected publications

Published in English as The Weasel and the Cat in Ancient Times (1887).