Leopold Zunz

Leopold Zunz (—Yom Tov Tzuntz, —Lipman Tsunts; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (Wissenschaft des Judentums), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism.

Biography

Leopold Zunz was born at Detmold, the son of Talmud scholar 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 to Hamburg, where, as a young boy, he began learning Hebrew grammar, the Pentateuch, and the Talmud. He subsequently gained admission to the Jewish "free school" (Freischule) founded by Philipp Samson, in Wolfenbüttel. Departing from home in July 1803, he saw his mother for the last time (she died in 1809 during his years in Wolfenbüttel).

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

He was friendly with the traditional Enlightenment figure Nachman Krochmal whose Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman (Lemberg, 1851), was edited by Zunz.

Zunz urged his contemporaries to, through the embrace of study of a wide swath of literature, grasp the geist or "spirit" of the Jewish people. Zunz proposed an ambitious Jewish historiography and further proposed that Jewish people adopt history as a way of life. Zunz not only proposed a university vision of Jewish studies, but believed Jewish history to be an inseparable part of human culture. Zunz's historiographical view aligns with the "lachrymose" view of Jewish history of persecution. Zunz was the least philosophically inclined of the Wissenschaft but the most devoted to scholarship. Zunz called for an "emanicipation" of Jewish scholarship "from the theologians."

Contrasting with earlier bible printing, Zunz adopted a re-Hebraization of names.

Zunz was politically active and was elected to office. He believed that Jewish emancipation would come out of universal human rights. The revolutionary year of 1848 had an influence on Zunz, and he expressed a messianic eagerness in the ideals of equality. Zunz's stated goal was to transform Prussia into a democratic republic.

Works

Zunz's 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's Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden, i.e. a history of the Sermon. It lays down principles for the investigation of the Rabbinic exegesis (Midrash) and of the siddur (prayer-book of the synagogue). This book raised Zunz to the supreme position among Jewish scholars. In 1845 appeared his Zur Geschichte und Literatur, in which he threw light on the literary and social history of the Jews. He had visited the British Museum in 1846, and this confirmed him in his plan for his third book, Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters (1855). It was from this book that George Eliot translated the following opening of a chapter of Daniel 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 his Ritus. In this he gives a masterly survey of synagogal rites. His last great book was his Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie (1865). A supplement appeared in 1867. Besides these works, Zunz published a new translation of the Bible, and wrote many essays which were afterwards collected as Gesammelte Schriften. Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur. Berlin : Maurersche Buchhandlung, 1818. Digital Form SLUB Dresden via EOD Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden historisch entwickelt: Ein Beitrag zur Alterthumskunde u. biblischen Kritik, zur Literatur- u. Religionsgeschichte. Berlin : Asher, 1832. Digital Form Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. Translated into Hebrew as הדרשות 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 Form Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. Predigten gehalten in der neuen Israelitischen Synagoge zu Berlin. Berlin: Schlesinger 1846. Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters. Berlin, 1855. Digital Form Freimann-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 Form Freimann-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 Form Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. Gesammelte Schriften. Berlin : Gerschel, 1875–76, Bd. 1, Bd. 2, Bd.3. Digital Form: Freimann-Sammlung, Frankfurt. Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums Jg. 1, Heft 1–3, 1822 (not more published). Edited by Leopold Zunz and Eduard Gans. Digital Form Compact Memory, Frankfurt. (About: J. Raphael, "Die Zeitschrift des Dr. L. Z". in Zeitschrift f. d. Geschichte der Juden, Heft 1/1970, Tel Aviv: Olamenu, S. 31–36)