Upload
others
View
1
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890
First Reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature at Cambridge
RAPHAEL LOEWE, M.C., M.A.
The purpose of this article is to record the story of a figure of some importance to Hebrew
studies in nineteenth-century England who
also played a role in the wings, rather than the
centre, of the Anglo-Jewish stage, before
historians lose the last echoes of personal reminiscence and are left with the bare docu?
ments. Of persons who were in immediate
touch with him it is improbable that any now
survive; indeed, there are but few left who were in close touch with those who had known
him intimately, for it is, at the time of writing, 72 years from the date of his death. But the
leading figures of Cambridge Orientalism in the
first third of the present century included a
number of distinguished scholars who had been
Schiller-Szinessy's pupils, and it was my
privilege as an undergraduate (and earlier) to find myself in contact with some of them.
When they could be prompted into reminis?
cence, they impressed me with the respect and
obvious affection in which they held him.
The occasion, however, for this biographical sketch was provided by the circumstance that a
number of Schiller-Szinessy's personal docu? ments came into my late father's hands in
about 1939; he was unable to examine them
himself, but while awaiting call-up to the
Forces in 1940 I did so, and was able to draw on his knowledge of events (he had not himself
known Schiller-Szinessy personally). The
papers were then roughly classified, but it is
only recently that I have been able to return to
them. The present article is the outcome of their
renewed study. The documents themselves are
calendared in Appendix II (pp. 166f), and are now deposited in the Mocatta Library at
University College, London.
Solomon Marcus1 Schiller was born on 23
December2 1820 in a house known as the
Alte Brauhaus, i.e., the Old Brewery, on the
site of the mud palace of Arpad, the founder of
the Magyar dynasty in the ninth century, in
Altofen (now Budapest), as the son of Me'ir or
Marcus Schiller,3 a merchant4 and a member of the Rabbinical council,5 who was, it would
seem, a Rabbi of the old school, and his
second6 wife Theresa (Teltse) Antonia B?k7?a
patronymic allegedly formed from the initials
of the words DWTj? and implying, apparently, descent from a martyr; she was a
member of the well-known family of printers in
Italy and Prague.9 At the tender age of six he
was, it seems, sent to live with Rabbi Aaron
Kornfeld, of Golcs Jenikau, although his
daughter's tradition10 that he used to rise to
study with the Rabbi at 4 a.m. refers, we may
hope, to a later stage in his education. During the plague of 1831 he was, he later claimed, the
only child in the Old Brewery quarter of Buda to have escaped cholera as well as con?
tinuing to eat the ripe plums which were held to be part cause of the disease;11 and he claimed
in later life that by this time he already knew
the Hebrew Bible by heart.12 He also studied with an elder brother, Moses Isaac Gershon, but the latter died, newly wed, in his 22nd year, when Solomon was in his 14th.13 He was at the
time attending the Jewish school in Altofen, the curriculum of which (naturally, in Hungary) included Latin?a school report dated Septem? ber 1832 survives14?his vacations being spent in intensive Hebrew study at the house of R.
Ephraim of V?r?svar.15 In 1836 he was
studying with R. Ezekiel of Neutra,16 reading the sub-Talmudic tractates with him twice
weekly, and in 1837-1838 he was with the Talmudist Baer b. Isaac Oppenheimer, a
connection of his mother's, in Pressburg.17 He
had, apparently, already evinced a scholarly bent and a vocation to combine the Rabbinate
with a modern European education, but seems
to have met with little encouragement in this
respect from his father; so that when he left
148
Jewish Historical Society of Englandis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
Transactions Jewish Historical Society of England
www.jstor.org
®
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 149
home at the age of 15 to prosecute his education he went practically penniless.18 For five years of his student life he was supported by the Archbishop of Erlau.19
After passing through the Royal Gymnasium at Gyongyos,20 near Budapest, and visiting Kornfeld for his vacations,21 he entered the
Lutheran College at Eperies in Upper Hungary
(now Presov, Czechoslovakia). The College was an institution of long standing and high academic reputation. At the end of his life
Schiller-Szinessy still retained sufficient
affection for the place to organise a public
appeal when the town was devastated by fire in
1887 (for which he elicited substantial response in academic and wider English circles);22 he
then described the College as being Virtually a
University, and ... in two out of its three
Faculties, Law and Philosophy, its teaching has
always been superior to that of the Royal Universities of Hungary and her dependencies. This institution has been for more than two
hundred years the mightiest engine for civilising the East of Europe . . ,523 (allowance must,
perhaps, be made for a commendable pietas). There is a record of his successful examination
in philosophy and mathematics in December
1843.24 He seems also to have attended some
lectures at Budapest, for he writes of Reisinger, Wolfstein, and Verney as his teachers there.25 For his doctorate, however, he proceeded to
Jena, where he attended lectures of Karl
August von Hase,26 the Protestant theologian and Church historian who was seeking a
synthesis of historical Christianity and modern
thought. He proceeded Ph.D., in mathematics
and philosophy, in 1845.27
The seal had meanwhile been likewise set
upon his Jewish education28 when, in 1843, he
had spent three weeks in intensive study with
Aaron Chorin,29 of Arad, and received from his hand Rabbinical semikhah (or, more accurately, the equivalent 'attereth bahurim, since he was still a bachelor.) He subsequently obtained endorse?
ments (as was the common custom) to the
licentia docendi that he had received from
Chorin, from L?b Schwab of Budapest,30 R.
Phineas Cohen 'the Cabbalist' of Telek31 (in
1847), and R. Me'ir Zipser, of Stuhlweissen
berg.32 Of these, Schwab and Zipser were both
men who had acquired a Western education and maintained a benign attitude towards it
within a Jewish milieu. Zipser met with opposi? tion within his own community in regard to the
halakhic propriety of a divorce issued by him, but was not otherwise credited with any Reformist sympathies. Schwab was a con?
servative who, though he conceded minimal
reforms in ritual in order to retain the in?
telligentsia within Judaism, was himself to be
instrumental in securing the dissolution of the
Reform Association of Budapest. Chorin,
though hardly a doctrinaire Reformer of the
German type, was substantially to the left of
the other two in regard to matters of minhag and
the relaxation of such sabbatical prohibitions as travel; and in 1844 he wrote, from his
death-bed, his endorsement of the sentiments of
the recently held Brunswick Conference of
Reform Rabbis. In view of the attitude that
Schiller was shortly to evince towards the
Reform movement in Judaism, the sympathies and antipathies towards it of those who con?
ferred or endorsed his own Rabbinical ordina?
tion is of some significance. It may be remarked
that there is no evidence to suggest that had
Schiller addressed himself instead to right-wing Rabbis, they might have withheld their appro? bation on grounds of any deficiency in scholar?
ship, practical observance, or of halakhic
radicalism. That he chose not to do so was
probably because he surmised, not without
reason, that they might regard his Western
academic credentials as in themselves compro?
mising his Jewish integrity. During his student days at Eperies Schiller
had created something of an impression by sermons delivered before the small local Jewish
community.33 He must have found the place
congenial, for after completing his doctorate he
returned there to take spiritual charge of the
congregation, which was then in process of
organising itself on a formal basis.33 He also
acted as a kind of notary (Translator in Hebraicis) for the municipal authority in connection with
Jewish documents,34 and received recognition from his old college first as Privatdozent and
later (perhaps) officially as professor publicus extraordinarius in Hebrew Language and Anti?
quities.35 The appointment of a Jew to the
150 Raphael Loewe
staff of the Evangelical College was, at the time, an unheard-of event,33 and Schiller (who, of
course, lectured in Latin)36 discharged his
academic duties to the eminent satisfaction of
the Rector and his colleagues35 and earned
himself from his students the soubriquet of
'Dr etcetera'.21 Within the Jewish community of
Eperies his preaching and educational under?
takings elicited an enthusiastic response from
the majority, even though muttered charges of
heresy were evoked from the old guard.33 The extent of his innovation seems to have been
limited to elaborate 'Confirmation' ceremonials
?presumably girls as well as boys being thus
dignified.38 The career of Schiller's older
contemporary Leopold Low indicates that a
Rabbi of scholarly interests and modernist
outlook, combined with staunch observance of
halakhic practice, could find the atmosphere of
Hungarian Jewry tolerable; and in so far as
party labels are of any relevance, there survives
evidence to show that, at this period at least, no aspersions on Schiller's 'orthodoxy' could
possibly have been substantiated.
In June 1844 there had assembled at Bruns?
wick an exploratory conference,39 convened
by Ludwig Philippson, of upwards of twenty Rabbis of Reformist leanings, with the object of 'considering the ways and means for the
preservation of Judaism, and the awakening of the religious spirit'. The commission which it appointed to inquire into various matters of
moment, such as the extent to which Hebrew
ought to be retained in the synagogue service,
reported at the next conference, held in Frank?
fort in July 1845. The resolutions of that con?
ference in favour of the retention, but restric?
tion to but a token vestige, of Hebrew as a
synagogal language, on the permissibility of
organ music on the Sabbath, and the canonicity of modern bathing establishments in regard to
ritual ablutions,40 constituted it a watershed
in the history of Judaism and consequently a
landmark in the history of Reform. When the
proceedings of the conference became public
knowledge, Schiller seems to have been stung into immediate counter-offensive, for a
pamphlet (in two parts)41 by him, which constitutes almost the earliest surviving example of his published writing, reached its second
edition bearing on its title-page the date 1845.
The first part, at the least, seems to have been
written at white heat?as an introductory note
to the reader all but confesses.42 In it he sets
forth to show that the whole tendency of the
conference was a destructive one, its orienta?
tion false, its sentiments petty, and its whole
spirit permeated by a bickering disputatious ness.43 The language which he sees fit to employ is sarcastic to the point of abusiveness?he does
not hesitate to dub the members of the con?
ference 'rabbis in miniature and pocket-sized
preachers',44 and insinuates their utter in?
competence to pronounce upon the issues which
they have had the impertinence to raise. The
intemperateness of Schiller's opposition is of the
greater significance in that he can hardly have
been unaware of the circumstance that, as
stated above, his own teacher Aaron Chorin had
indicated his adherence to the Reform pro?
posals that had been adumbrated the previous
year at Brunswick. Perhaps he felt able to dis?
count Chorin's endorsement inasmuch as it had
been the gesture of a dying man from his sick?
bed, or convinced himself that the Frankfort
resolutions had gone beyond anything to which
Chorin would have been prepared to put his
name. At any rate, when nearly forty years later
Schiller-Szinessy was recording in print his
tribute to his teachers?at a time when his own
views had modified but little (as will transpire below), in spite of his having exercised eccle?
siastical authority over a Reform congregation ?he wrote of Chorin's learning, strict obser?
vance, and self-discipline in terms of the highest
respect, pointedly concluding with the quota? tion of Psalm xxxi, 19(18), Let the lying lips be
put to silence, which speak arrogance proudly and
contemptuously against the righteous.45 The second part of the pamphlet, which
appeared separately with a dedication by Schiller to his parents on his twenty-fifth
birthday, is certainly more restrained in tone.
In it he shows himself not oblivious of the
problems, abuses, and condition of Jewish
religious apathy to which the conference of
Reformers had addressed itself, but he still expresses trenchant criticism equally of their
methods and of their self-assurance, emphasising that they are out of touch with both the sources
PLATE XIII
OW irrm r* ithcw crw vty p ?opj m oner?
emn tna rn noa i"*Qrr ̂ y.noi t-ntaVjaio ktqi
.vcra m? bwkfi n^Srum V'? on apir utkj h<r?un
?I
3 naw Sy orw t-^Vi aron1? uro O'tm nVm
Dar? i*a yap ru? Vi1? ?rm1?
t p*lS UTRQMH
* l'OT m pnj1?ITH 1*3? Wim
unjrm nVnj nVwoo rm p-wVa oru
refron nnVvon rrenn
AI
fr?
Title-page of Urim Vetumim, by Uri Feibush, London, 1706 [Seep. 138ff.
PLATE XIV
31 nvvn
* oauwai Vnaj iwvrow Va -pui1? p"p na f?K *?3?
? 0?dW? wj HD -ok1?
Vro t?a pprui : o,jw*n'7 p-or
? rwp KTirr ?13 mia tu
77J '77?J *pf> 'CD? '3)PJ P31DPI P>ipGP 0'7p' 0'737 ritf <pj 7W>| "EVP W 13 37 ?BW> ?f Ijpi Ol "3>?p' p it?
? p53 O^OT?
? rnp Pi? o*:jpj? 037p canpi
o'ptm o*7)7P
PPI? '7CII7 '7"PI ' P7PDpJ t?J P?->
?Jr? 7DP ? P7PP ->sdJ P?" '"15 0)57$ P'3??
rvaa ? min Var Smx asn? ? w^rra pnr ilina rnaw rrnnn pma nVwrn tsai pcpn
?3112 pax na n".i pai? orrn Tpio fimar?DDii?oi oSsnon oannp
?ja?? ?3i n?d
p"pa rr ?.jnaan
: JISW? P?7i diop'ptP 0- DPP ix? 3BP 7;kl? PJ'7W |7J>$ p"p3 P"pi 775
Title-page of Maaseh Rav, by Rabbi Johanan ben Isaac Holleschau, London
' [See p. 138ff.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 151
of Jewish theological thinking and the reservoirs of contemporary Jewish piety. He concludes
with a Hebrew poetical prayer,46 which it is
possible to construe as an aspiration on Schiller's own part that he might himself afford a
rallying-point on whom the Reformers might
close, and so, by means of a disciplined and re
invigorated approach to the classical products of Jewish thought, find their way back to the main body of traditional Jewry. One may doubt, in the light of his subsequent career, whether
(for all his unquestioned personal courage) he
possessed the qualities of leadership to achieve
any such result; and even if such was indeed the career for which he was grooming himself, events superseded which were to reshape it
entirely. The year 1848 was an ominous one. Hun?
garian nationalist sentiment had for some time
past been fanned by the fiery oratory of Lajos Kossuth; and when the news of the Paris
revolution and the fall of Louis Philippe reached Budapest on March 3, Kossuth came
out with a demand for Parliamentary govern? ment for Hungary.47 Ten days later Metternich was overthrown in Vienna, and Battyany, who
formed the new Ministry, had to take Kossuth
into the Government, but he sought to in?
hibit his talent for winning personal popularity by putting him into the Ministry of Finance. Kossuth exploited his opportunities for foster?
ing Hungarian separatist aspirations by issuing a special Hungarian coinage (a gesture which, in a Jewish context, must inevitably recall Bar
Gochba's), on the paper currency of which
Kossuth's name was the most prominent feature.
The rest of the story need but be summarised.
Fighting broke out and Kossuth, himself with?
out military experience or genius, retained
supreme control. After initial Hungarian successes in the field he issued, on March 19
1849, the Hungarian Declaration of Independ? ence, in which he was himself named as the
'responsible governor president'; but in August of that year the South Hungarian army was
defeated at Temesv?r, Kossuth handed over his
powers to G?rgei, a soldier, and a surrender was negotiated.
Although at the beginning of the uprising the
Jews had been attacked by the populace in
L
several places, they rallied in considerable,
perhaps in some areas in disproportionate, numbers to the Hungarian nationalist cause.48 The execution in Vienna of Hermann
Jellinek,49 a political journalist and the brother of the well-known Austrian Jewish preacher, caused a considerable stir, not only in Jewish circles. At any rate, the Austrian authorities
subsequently regarded Jewish participation in
the revolution as having been significant
enough to merit exemplary financial reprisals, and the indemnities imposed upon the local
Jewish communities were too severe to be met
by funds available in each place. The Govern? ment accordingly pooled the contributions
payable by Hungarian Jews, excepting only the communities of Pressburg and Temesvar,
which had remained loyal. Eventually, in 1850, the Emperor remitted the war-tax on the
Jews in consideration of their undertaking to raise a million gulden as capital to found a
school; and the emergent institution for
Jewish secondary and higher education in
Budapest consequently bears the name of the
Franz-Josef Seminar.
Schiller was an enthusiast for the cause of
Hungarian liberation, and it is stated in the
biographical reference-books that on the out?
break of the revolution he stumped the country on a recruiting campaign among the Jewish communities, calling on them from the pulpit to rally to the Magyar standard.50 Sermon titles which have been preserved from this
period may lend some colour to this51 and to the statement that he published a rendering of the Hungarian patriotic song 'Szozat' into
Hebrew.52 As a further mark of his Hungarian
patriotism he also Magyarised his German
name, which means iridescence, as Szinessy.53 These activities may well have brought him into personal contact with Kossuth, whose friend Schiller-Szinessy was stated in obituary
matter to have been. In any case, Kossuth,
though Schiller-Szinessy's senior by eighteen years, was, like him, a graduate of the Eperies
College,54 and when the revolution broke out
many of its professoriate and its student body flocked to his banner.55 It was already 1849 when Schiller-Szinessy joined the colours,56 and his military career, if short-lived, was
152 Raphael Loewe
adventurous. In March of that year a series of
engagements took place in an area between the
Rivers Theiss and Danube, the success of the
Hungarians in which forced the Austrians back
towards Budapest.57 It was in the course of one
of these operations, probably, rather than at
Szegedin,58 that Schiller-Szinessy was in?
volved in the demolition of a bridge over the
Theiss intended to check the Austrian advance, was wounded59, captured by the Austrians
under Count Schlick,60 and imprisoned in the
fortress of Temesv?r.61 For reasons that are
nowhere made clear, he is said to have been con?
demned to death,62 but in spite of his wound he
succeeded in escaping the night before his in?
tended execution,63 no doubt aided by Galician
Jews who formed his guards.64 Having made his
way to Trieste, he embarked on a Scottish
boat65 bound for Ireland. During the voyage, on which he subsisted entirely off boiled potatoes and butter,66 the ship's doctor removed his
bullets; and after sixty days' sailing they berthed at Cork. He had intended to sail in the Royal Adelaide, bound for London, with the
intention of arriving there in time for Passover, but was dissuaded by advice that she might not
make port. (The Adelaide did, in point of fact, go down off the coast of Kent with the loss of all aboard her?about 400 lives?circa 11 p.m. on 1 April 1850.) Instead, he made his way to Dublin, where he preached (presumably in
Yiddish or German) and was presented by the
Jewish community with a gold watch as a
token of appreciation,67 and so to England. Arrived in this country, he resided for a
time at the improbable-sounding address of
Stoke Poges, near Slough, learning English from two retired governesses who chose as their
text Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of
England.68 He soon, however, moved to
Manchester, where he set up as a freelance
scholar in Cheetham Hill, offering to 'give instruction in the Hebrew language, Biblical
and Rabbinical Literature, and History'.69 He
must have acquired great fluency in English
surprisingly quickly, for on Sabbath Nahamu, 1850, he preached a sermon which, printed in
extenso in the Jewish Chronicle,10 occupies
nearly six columns of print. As a sustained piece of Victorian pulpit oratory it is a remarkable
achievement for one who, though doubtless
assisted with the English, but a few months
previous will have been unacquainted with a
word of the language. On the ensuing New
Year, he was preaching at Birmingham,71 his
sermon having been translated for him, and on
the Day of Atonement and on Tabernacles he
was again preaching at Manchester. The press
report72 of the great stir created by these
addresses is borne out by the glowing terms of a
letter of thanks from the Wardens of the Old
Hebrew Congregation,73 who allude to his
having opened 'the Eyes & Hearts of our
Coreligionists... to the necessity of Oral
instruction', and look forward to the implemen? tation of the programme that he had outlined
for them. It is clear that the possibility of his taking spiritual charge of the Congregation had been mooted, and on January 18 next, 1851 (Sabbath Beshallah), Schiller-Szinessy was
formally inducted as Minister.74 The special
prayer for the occasion expressed the hope that
'this Congregation?the Congregation of Jacob ?may, under his banner, become indeed a
Congregation of the Lord;?observers of thy
Religion and of thy Law'. As in his former
rabbinate at Eperies, he at once made the
improvement of the religious education of the
children a major preoccupation; and his
endeavours found sufficient favour from his
flock to elicit from a Ladies' Committee, within
a year, a presentation in the form of an address
and a needlework purse, embroidered by two
of the ladies and containing fifty-five
sovereigns.7 5
He had held his new cure of souls for less
than a year when on 10 October 1851 Queen Victoria visited Manchester. Schiller
Szinessy's sermon,76 delivered at the end of the
day of her visit (it being the eve of Tabernacles), is in its printed form entitled The feelings of the Israelite on beholding his sovereign, and is evocative
of Tennyson's poem To the Queen written two
years later:
'In the course of centuries [he said] many women have sat on various thrones in
Europe ... There have been an Elizabeth, a
Catharine, a Maria Theresa, and others; but the
first was not a wife, the second was neither a
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 153
good wife nor a good mother, and the third was not a loyal patriot; the first stifled the
feelings of the heart, the second those of
virtue, and the third those of the country; but as wife, mother, and patriot at once, there
has existed and does exist but one Queen? Victoria!'
A month later Manchester was the scene of
another visit, this time from Schiller-Szinessy's erstwhile revolutionary leader Kossuth, who was by now in exile. Although the city fathers
denied him any civic cognisance of his presence in their midst, he was accorded a reception of
remarkable enthusiasm, and Schiller-Szinessy formed one of the party that welcomed him on
arrival at the railway station.77 It was doubt?
less the close succession of this visit on the royal one that prompted Schiller-Szinessy to append to his printed version of the sermon just cited a
'Dedication to Lewis Kossuth (late Governor
of the Hungarian Empire)'. In it he sets himself
to justify his combination of British with Hungarian patriotism (he was not, in fact, to
become a naturalised British subject until three
years later),78 and emphasises that for all their
determined opposition to the Hapsburg regime in Hungary, 'we' had no objections to monarchy
per se as a form of government?herein echoing sentiments to which Kossuth had given voice in
London a week earlier, when in a speech at
Copenhagen Fields he had expressed his own
respect for the constitutional monarchy of
England and for the Queen.79
Schiller-Szinessy had preached, a few weeks
previous, in Liverpool, on the occasion of the
reopening of the Hardman Street Synagogue. In his remarks80 he was circumspect in the use
that he made of the dangerous word reform,
calling upon the Congregation to reform their
service 'not in a destructive81 manner, not on the
plan of those who remodel things till no part of
the original is left. . . reform your Divine
service; that is . . . take heed that the life
giving word of instruction may never fail here'.
In his own parish he was meanwhile carrying out the normal administrative duties of a local
Rabbi, including that of the examination of
shohetim82 The extent of his innovations seems, as (probably) at Eperies, to have been limited
to the confirmation of girls. On the first occasion on Pentecost, 1852, he defended the practice in a sermon entitled Confirmation a genuine Jewish institution,** and at the end of his life, when
writing of five such ceremonies conducted by him, he was to express the conviction that 'the
orthodox Synagogues of England will introduce
it sooner or later with the consent of their
Spiritual chiefs'.84 A full description of one
such celebration in 1854 was printed by the Hebrew Observer85 The fifteen candidates for
confirmation, who had received two years'
preliminary instruction from the Rabbi, first
received their respective parental blessings while the choir sang a Hebrew poem of
Schiller-Szinessy's composition.86 The children
thereupon made profession of their faith in the
three cardinal principles of the divine unity, revelation, and reward and punishment?
principles which were likewise embodied in the
foregoing hymn, and which had constituted the
three basic ar ticles of Judaism for Joseph Albo in his 'Iqqarim. This was followed by an anti
phonal, each candidate reciting the verse
selected by him or her as a life's motto and the
choice being commended by the Rabbi. The
following is a specimen:
Master Bennet Oppenheim: I [have selected from Holy Writ, as a watchword for
life, the sentiment contained in the] 3 v.,
xxi, I Book Kings:? 'God forbid that I should give away the
inheritance of my fathers'.
The Rabbi: A cheering promise, my son, for all connected with thee by nature and
religion. Would that every son and daughter in our community formed the same resolve, 'God forbid that I should give away the in?
heritance of my fathers.' Never, my son, must thou allow the inheritance of thy fathers, the holy religion of Israel, to be wrested from
thy heart, neither by life's bitter trials nor
by life's sweet temptations; and God will
always be thy heavenly friend and protector, &c.
A marked note of tenderness87 in the full
length accounts of two of these confirmation
ceremonies suggests that Schiller-Szinessy's intense interest in them was in part the outcome
154 Raphael Loewe
of a feeling of unfulfilled bachelorhood. His appointment had been as Rabbi of the
Old Hebrew Congregation,88 with which a
one-time dissident group had reunited89
under the title of the United Hebrew Congrega? tion of Manchester.90 He was, of course,
generally accepted as 'Local Rabbi'?a title
of which he was himself to make use,91 and
later on (though in due course it ceased to
correspond to realities) retrospectively to under?
line by describing himself as 'formerly Rabbi of the Entire Jewish Community in Man?
chester'.92 Indeed, so sensible was he of the
advantages (public, no doubt, as well as
material to his own interest) of maintaining communal unity, that he apparently even
countenanced hankerings after the establish? ment of a Reform synagogue. It seems that he
nurtured hopes that such leanings (which
perhaps were primarily concerned with the
introduction of an organ into synagogal
worship, and were of quite long standing in
Manchester)93 could be satisfied by the
establishment of a branch place of worship, of
minimal heterodoxy, alongside the parent body under his own spiritual jurisdiction, and he is
alleged actually to have canvassed the member?
ship of the United Hebrew Congregation in
secret for financial support for 'a place of
worship which he contemplated establishing', thereby inviting the criticism that he was
'underminfing] the foundations of our Con?
gregation by sowing the seeds of dissension'.94
His judgment was clearly at fault?clouded,
perhaps, by the recollection that his own
teacher, Aaron Chorin, had approved the
introduction of an organ95?but it is im?
probable that this piece of business by itself would have embroiled him with his congrega? tion. It is, moreover, a likely possibility that
Reformists in Manchester, led by Tobias
Theodores96 (himself a loyal supporter of
Schiller-Szinessy rather than his manipulator), and encouraged by the viability of the Reform Congregation in Margaret Street, London, would sooner or later have seceded from the
main community. The statement by historians97
that Schiller-Szinessy's activities were in part
responsible for the schism needs the qualification that his own parting of company with the
parent congregation was occasioned not by
theological or ritual considerations so much as
by a piece of inept indulgence on his part in ecclesiastical politics to which we shall revert
below.
We must first, however, take a closer look at
the complexion of the Manchester Reform
community, which, on emergence from its
chrysalis stage in 1856-1857 as the Manchester
Congregation of British Jews, carried Schiller
Szinessy with it as its own Rabbi. The founda?
tion-stone of their new synagogue in Park
Place98 was laid in March, 1857, and in his sermon on the occasion99 Schiller-Szinessy was
at pains to remind his flock as much of their common ground with the parent community as
of their justification in leaving it:
'For unless [he said] you keep this [sc. the historical significance and purpose of the
Synagogue] steadily before your eyes, what can compensate you for having severed your? selves from your brethren, with whom you have the same truths, the same vocation, the same trusts, the same hopes in common?
What will compensate you for having dis?
connected ties which had become dear to
you, what but the consciousness that by
changing the form you have not changed the
spirit of the universal synagogue, but that
you have rather strengthened it, and that
you have thereby saved Judaism for your? selves and your children, and yourselves and
your children for Judaism? Having found that in the old congregation the spirit was
made subordinate to the letter, that religious progress was negatived by mundane con?
servatism, it became your sacred duty to dis?
regard holy and dear ties for still holier and
dearer ones, the ties between yourselves and
your religion, you were impelled to the
establishment of a new congregation . .. let,
therefore, the new synagogue be the palla? dium of religious progress, not merely in
theory but also in practice . . .
The same point was emphasised by him in the sermon preached a year later at the opening of the synagogue,100 in which he stressed the
inherent orthodoxy of the changes in refusing to agree to which the parent synagogue had
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 155
compelled the dissidents to fend for themselves.
No abolitions of any real halakhic substance had
been contemplated?even observance of the
second days of Festivals had been retained (a
discrepancy with London Reform practice that
had earned the Mancunians a polite rebuff
from the West London Synagogue at their
first attempt to affiliate).101 All that had been
done was to 'la[y] down the general principle that we would return to biblical truth, and
that we would admit only such post-biblical usages in our synagogue teachings and in our
domestic practices, as are not contradictory to
the law of the Bible. . . . Was not this the ideal
of many of the greatest and most pious teachers
of the Talmud?' As regards synagogal ritual, recitation of the piyyutim had been abolished
(a move that was to be sanctioned somewhat
later for the general Ashkenazi community by Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler) and their place taken by a more elaborate use of the Psalter;
Marks's London Reform prayer-book of 1841
had been adopted; and an undertaking entered
into by the Rabbi 'to preach the Word of God in the vernacular on every Sabbath, Festival
and solemn occasion'. This sermon had been
preceded by a flysheet,102 circulated to his
congregants, which in view of its rarity and its
importance for the history of the Manchester
Congregation of British Jews is reprinted below
(Appendix I). This refers, in addition to the details cited from the sermon, to the institution
of an English form of Service for the Memorial
for the Departed, and to the confirmation of
children of both sexes. Although the flysheet is
clearly apologetic, it apprises us of two salient
facts. First, that though Schiller-Szinessy may
(as he admits) have been injudicious103 in his
choice of means to promote his ideas in the
parent congregation, he had been misrepre? sented by mischief-makers?to the traditionalists as being a radical reformer, and to the would-be
modernisers as being a violent reactionary.
Secondly, that it was the leading lights of the new Reform Congregation who had them?
selves been instrumental in securing his
original appointment in 1851 to 'fill the Rabbinical chair in the then Hebrew Congrega? tion of Manchester.104 This circumstance
strengthens the impression that the emergence
of an independent Reform synagogue was in?
evitable, and that Schiller-Szinessy set himself
to retain it within as conservative a pattern as
possible, at all events as far as concerned such
halakhic considerations as marriage regulations the disregard of which would involve grave communal disruption. It is probable that his
confirmation of girls did alienate the diehards
in the parent congregation, and perhaps such
disaffection as may have been found among the
less doughty membership may have owed some?
thing to a sentimental (rather than validly
orthodox) hankering after the familiar
Hebrew memorial service. But it is quite clear
that the casus belli which had led to his resigna? tion of the Rabbinate of the United Congrega? tion lay on a different plane.
In (or shortly before) 1856 a split had occurr? ed in the Jewish community at Hull.105 A
group, dubbed by the Hull leadership as
'foreign' Jews, first formed a 'Psalm Society'
(i.e., Hevra tehillim) within the main community and then graduated to independence as the
'Seceders from the Old Congregation', or
New Congregation under the leadership of a
certain Barnard (or Barnett), an erstwhile
shohet in Birmingham who had been dismissed.
This group made overtures to Schiller-Szinessy
early in February 1856, and then made capital of their success in persuading him to visit Hull to solemnise a marriage on their behalf. There
is nothing to suggest that the union concerned was halakhically improper?Schiller-Szinessy would not have been party to anything of the
kind?but for some unknown reason it did not
comply with the rules current in the Hull
congregation, which considered itself under the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Adler, Chief
Rabbi in London. Having got wind of what the
dissidents intended, Bethel Jacobs, the President
of the established Hull community, wrote to the
officers of the Manchester synagogue, asking them to ascertain Schiller-Szinessy's intentions
in the matter and bespeaking their good
offices, if needed, to dissuade him from exacer?
bating by any interference a breach between
the Hull congregation and 'a few discontented
persons'. Adler was meanwhile advised by Hull
about what was happening. An official letter, couched in courteous and kindly terms, was
156 Raphael Loewe
addressed by the Manchester Executive to
Schiller-Szinessy, who saw fit to ignore it and
to proceed to Hull without informing his Wardens. On arrival, he sent a message to
Bethel Jacobs, requesting him to wait upon him to discuss communal matters, since 'certain
persons in the town had elected him their
Chief Rabbi'. On February 19, after a civil ceremony at the Register Office, Schiller
Szinessy solemnised the marriage concerned
according to Jewish rites, producing a certifi?
cate ('signed by 3 or 4 malcontents') without
which he would not have acted, and announc?
ing that he would grant his authorisation for
marriages at a fee of 10/6, providing that civil marriage had first taken place. The next day Manchester, apprised by Hull of what had
occurred, suspended Schiller-Szinessy from the
office of Rabbi. Subsequently (30 March) he submitted his resignation, which was accepted; but he was asked to remain as Superintendent of the Jews' School, with full responsibility for religious instruction106 (clear evidence that
matters theological and halakhic were not in
dispute). The United Congregation was perhaps
acting with its tongue to some extent in its
cheek, being doubtless not unaware that there was at least an informal understanding that
Schiller-Szinessy was to be appointed Rabbi of
the emergent Reform Congregation. Schiller
Szinessy himself, quite unrepentant, less than three weeks afterwards, required the dissidents at Hull to sign a document in parallel German
and English texts acknowledging him as Chief
Rabbi of Hull?a title analogous to that
assumed by him in Manchester on transference
to the Reform Congregation.107 Since, how?
ever, the Hull dissenters rejoined the parent
community in the following July, his experience of ecclesiastical plurality proved short-lived.108
It had lasted just long enough for his special prayer at a service of thanksgiving on the con?
clusion of the Crimean War to have been read
on the same day in both Manchester and
Hull.109
The whole incident is at once puzzling and
revealing. Puzzling, because Schiller-Szinessy was so palpably acting against his own best
interests: for had he refrained from flouting the
United Manchester Congregation's feelings,
there was at the least a reasonable chance of his
retaining ecclesiastical rule over that body as
well as over the Reform synagogue then
emerging from it, to which he seems to have
pledged himself. Revealing, inasmuch as it seems possible to distinguish three public and
two personal strands from the tangled skein.
On the personal side there was, no doubt, the
desire of the Hull community's established
leadership (in the person of Bethel Jacobs) to assert itself over against the upstart seceders
whom, being new immigrants, it chose to
label as 'foreigners', 'malcontents', or '3 or 4 of
the lowest order of travelling Jews who lived in
the town'. On the same level, we must assume
some empire-building aspirations on Schiller
Szinessy's own part, even though symptoms of
ambition are not evident in what else is known
of his career. On the public side, Hull
acknowledged the moral ascendancy of the
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbinate in London,
although under no formal obligation to do so;
and, whereas Manchester had preferred to
maintain its ecclesiastical independence, it was
rightly sensitive about allowing itself to be
construed to have challenged Adler's ever
widening prestige as Chief Rabbi in England by, so to speak, leaving its money on Schiller
Szinessy once he had been warned off the course. It was Adler's deliberate policy to con?
centrate as far as possible all Rabbinical
authority throughout the country in his own
hands, and he may not have been flattered that
it was to Schiller-Szinessy rather than to him?
self that the Liverpool community had turned
for the rededication of their synagogue in
1851.110 Adler and he were perhaps not on
terms, for although he could, at the end of his
life, write that 'Dr. Adler is not the man to run people down at random',111 I am the
recipient of a tradition that he sardonically
interpreted Job xxviii, 21, where Wisdom is said to be hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from Hhe fowls of the air\ as alluding in un?
mistakable terms to the King of the Birds (Adler).112 The third public consideration
again concerns Schiller-Szinessy personally. It seems to me not unlikely that in responding to the overtures made to him by the Hull
dissidents, he had convinced himself that he was
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 157
championing the immigrant underdogs, who, he may well have thought, were not getting a
fair deal from their fellow-Jews of but slightly longer English standing in the Establishment at
Hull. Such egalitarianism would be in charac?
ter in one who had espoused Kossuth's brand
of liberalism; and it would chime in with sentiments expressed by him twenty-six years
later, when before an English audience he
characterised the Jews of Russia (and Eastern
Europe generally) as 'frugal, industrious,
moral, religious, charitable, affectionate, faithful to their sovereign, and much attached
to their father-land; in a word, that they
practise all the virtues, which only the very exalted portion of Society is supposed to
practise'.113 It of course goes without saying that if championship of what he considered the
oppressed classes was indeed Schiller-Szinessy's motivation in this affair, it may well have
obscured any element of personal ambition
from his conscious self, while by no means
excluding its coincident promptings. His ministry to the Manchester Congregation
of British Jews lasted for about four years, since
by October 1860 he had resigned?at his own
request, as an enthusiastic testimonial from
Horatio Micholls, its president, made clear.114
It is appropriate at this point to consider
whether in the course of transferring his
sympathies to the self-avowed Reformists of
Manchester (or allowing himself to be captured
by them, as the case may be) he in fact
consciously altered his theological or halakhic
position. The latter aspect, as affording
opportunity for pragmatic tests, is perhaps the more significant. The regime that he established
for his new flock was, with the exception of the
tolerance of organ music in synagogue, an
observant one;115 and if he accepted the
London Reform synagogue's prayer-book for
his new congregation, he was himself in due course to bring up his family on the traditional
one, adopting the Sephardic rite but not the
Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew.116 His
standards of personal observance remained, to
the end of his days, as rigorous as they had
been when he turned vegetarian while escaping from the Austrians.117 A couple of anecdotes
make this clear. One relates to an incident in
a Jewish eating-house in Paris, where he was
observed to refuse a fried sole because of a
faint suspicion that it had been cooked in lard,
despite the waiter's indignant protestations that oil had been used.118 The other concerns
an occasion when he wished on a certain
Sabbath to visit the house of a friend in Shelford, some six miles distant from his own home in
Cambridge. In order to be able to do so without
contravening the regulations relative to the
length of a Sabbath-day's journey, he deposited some sandwiches in a tree-trunk on the previous
day, thereby establishing for himself an extended 'residence' and bringing Shelford
within the permissible radius for a journey on
foot.119
As regards theory, it deserves notice that in
1860 he was still using Albo's three principles of unity, revelation, and retribution as a kind of
catechism for his confirmands;120 and he may therefore be deemed to have articulated his
personal faith on lines postulated by a philoso?
pher of Judaism who was not merely broadly
speaking acceptable to nineteenth-century traditional Jewry, but whose three principles
were actually presented as the summary of
Judaism by Nathan Adler in a sermon in 1848, three years after he had come to London as
Chief Rabbi.121 That the more detailed
picture, however, was less in harmony with
what was conventionally regarded as orthodox
Jewish thinking is made clear by an exchange of letters between himself and David Woolf
Marks, Minister of the London Reform
synagogue.122 When the Manchester
Reformists' plans were getting under way in
1856 Schiller-Szinessy was encouraged to make
contact with Marks and to obtain experience of
the minhag of the West London Synagogue, with a view to its adoption in Manchester; and after
the London executive had been apprised of the
exchange of views and the measure of agree? ment obtaining between them, Schiller
Szinessy was invited to preach at Margaret
Street, London, on Shemini 'Asereth (Tuesday, 21 October). Marks had written:
'the principle that has invariably guided my Congregation's services, [is] that whilst
Rabbinical dicta are to be regarded with great
158 Raphael Loewe
consideration, they are not to be placed on a level with the Divine Code of the Bible ... let it not be supposed that it is the
intention... to infringe in any way the
character of traditionary records. On
the contrary, we recognise in them a valuable aid for the elucidation of many passages in Scripture. We feel proud of them as a
monument of the zeal and activity of our
ancestors . . . but we must. . . deny that the
belief in the divisibility of the traditions con? tained in the Mishna and the Jerusalem and
Babylonian Talmud is of equal obligation to the Israelites with the faith in the divinity of the Law of Moses. We know that these books are human compositions and . . . we cannot
unconditionally accept their laws. For
Israelites there is one immutable Law . . .
commanded by God to be written down for the unerring guidance of his people until the end of time.'
To this Schiller-Szinessy had replied: 'Permit me to assure you that your
doctrine is nothing more than I have in?
variably taught in public and in private. No
one, who has made himself acquainted with the writings of the Talmud can fail to enter?
tain the highest respect and veneration for such devoted friends to Judaism and I do not think that any of their teachings should be rejected without a patient and critical
investigation of their object. But there is a
vast difference between appreciating the merit of the Talmudical writings and believ?
ing in the inspiration of their contents. If
you have by you a copy of my pamphlet, published eleven years ago, you will perceive that it lays down the same doctrine as that contained in the extract of your Margaret Street discourse [transcribed in the foregoing
letter], a doctrine from which I have seen no
occasion to swerve in mature years. Tn the congregation over which I am
appointed to preside, the second days of
Festivals will be kept, but such observances can in no manner contravene the principle
already admitted inasmuch as they will be
observed, not as Mosaic and Biblical
ordinance but purely and professedly as
ancient institutions with [sic] which many of our members look with a feeling of reverence'.
The extraordinary thing about this letter is
Schiller-Szinessy's reference to his pamphlet of
1845?i.e., presumably his diatribe against the Frankfort conference of Reform rabbis123, in which he had inveighed with all the emphasis at his command against the impropriety of
tampering with Rabbinical interpretation and
elaboration of the institutions of Judaism?to the extent, inter alia, of transcribing Mai
monides' ordinance that rules against the
permissibility of douching instead of immersion for ritual purposes, and of water supplied from a cistern instead of direct from the flowing stream.124 The whole atmosphere of the
pamphlet is so utterly at variance with the spirit in which he writes to Marks that his identifica? tion of his standpoint in the two amounts to
sheer self-deception. And yet, as we have seen,
alongside this eirenic cooperativeness evinced towards the spiritual leader of a congregation that had relinquished any claims to be re?
garded as orthodox, he was himself at pains to
vindicate the orthodoxy of modifications, etc., introduced125 or sanctioned126 by himself.
The truth is, perhaps, that his theological and halakhic views did, in point of fact, shift but little during the course of his life, but that he
was forced to a realisation that 'Orthodoxy' was becoming less a one-word symbol of a given 'philosophy' of Judaism than a party-line shibboleth. With the need for the latter he came to learn to dispense?taught, perhaps, by the distance from those centres of intenser
Jewish existence in the homeland from which he had fled, as well as by the collapse of his rather absurd coup aimed at establishing for
himself a kind of ecclesiastical province north of the Humber. In consequence, though never
himself either repudiating or abandoning his own claims to be regarded as orthodox, he came in later life to think of the issue as
sufficiently unimportant for him to be able to pass in silence over insinuations of his own
heterodoxy; save that he seems occasionally to
have replied to them inferentially, by affirming that so classical a figure of the Jewish past as
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 159
Abraham ibn Ezra,127 or a figure so secure in
the esteem of the right-wing Jewry of his own
day as Z. H. Chajes,128 could not be validly described as orthodox Jews.
The account of Schiller-Szinessy's sojourn in
Manchester may be rounded off by two less
disputatious incidents. He seems to have
decided by the early summer of 1860 to retire from his Rabbinical position with the Reform community, for on 20 May he was presented with a silver qiddush-cup by the children of his religion classes.129 He apparently continued to
reside in Manchester, where he met the lady who was in 1863 to become his wife. The
circumstances of his marriage connect up,
quite incidentally, with a piece of routine
administration back in the days of his occupa? tion of the rabbinate of the United Manchester
Congregation. On 18 October 1854, he had
solemnised the marriage of a French Jew to the
daughter of one of his congregants.130
Prompted, perhaps, by this occasion, and
perhaps already at this stage concerned to
avoid dealings with Adler, he must have
referred a question regarding the acceptance of some would-be female proselytes to Lazard
Isidor, then Grand Rabbin of Paris.131 The
reply from Isidor, who was himself an
opponent of the Reform movement, is in cordial
terms. Writing in Hebrew, he expresses
scepticism as to the bona fides of most proselytes, since in his own experience nearly all cases
were matrimonially actuated, but nevertheless
counsels a liberal policy132 inasmuch as the
halakhic consequences of rigour would be even worse than those of lenience; and he under?
takes to convert Schiller-Szinessy's candidates
after due preparation. Nine years later Schiller
Szinessy had occasion to refer to Isidor again. He had met, at the house of a certain Mrs.
Jacobs, who was a widow in his congregation,133 a Miss Georgiana Eleanor Herbert, herself
accustomed to attend a Unitarian place of
worship. (It may be of significance that in 1859 he had devoted two sermons to the harmony and dis-harmony between Judaism and Christi?
anity,134 in the first considering Trinitarian
Christianity and in the second Unitarianism, the incompatibility of which with Judaism he does not in any way minimise). The two fell in
love, and after the lady had received the
necessary catechumenical training they visited
Paris, where, under the auspices of Isidor and
the baptismal name of Sarah, she was converted
to Judaism.135 On 19 May 1863 she was
married to Schiller-Szinessy in Isidor's drawing room, Isidor's son-in-law and successor Zadoc
Kahn being a witness.136 It remained an ideal
marriage to the end of his life. On their return
to England the couple moved out of Manchester
into the Cheshire countryside, where Schiller
Szinessy seems to have supported himself by
taking private pupils;137 and it was here that
their first child, Alfred Solomon, was born.138
This rustic interlude can have been but a
honeymoon idyll, for in the same year139 he
exchanged Merseyside for the banks of the
Cam. He had, perhaps, heard of the existence
of a collection of Hebrew MSS. in Cambridge, but what actually directed his steps thither with
a view to settlement must be a matter of con?
jecture. My surmise is that someone?possibly some Gentile pupil in the Midlands who had been up at Cambridge?intimated to him that
there was enough scope for a freelance Jewish scholar to maintain himself there. Since the
time of Isaac Abendana at the end of the
seventeenth century there had been, more or
less continuously, a succession of Jews of
scholarly competence whose presence at its
fringes the University had both welcomed and,
indeed, to some extent financially subvented?
although, of course, no one who was not an
Anglican could take a degree. The latest of
these Jewish teachers had been Rabbi Joseph Crool,140 who had deputised for the Regius Professor of Hebrew between 1806 and 1838.
Crool had been followed by Dr. Hermann
Bernard,141 son of an Austrian Jewish father
himself converted to Christianity, in which
faith the son had naturally been reared. Bernard
was enough of a Rabbinic scholar to publish a
volume of selections from Maimonides' Code, and was a successful teacher of Hebrew at
Cambridge. His death in 1857 had left a gap which, it would seem, Schiller-Szinessy decided six years later he might fill. He consequently installed himself at Cambridge, at first on the
Trumpington Road and subsequently in a small
terrace house near the Hills Road railway
160 Raphael Loewe
bridge,142 and advertised his availability to
teach, as in his early days in Manchester, Hebrew language, literature, and history, with
the addition now of Latin, German, and
French.143 And it was in Cambridge that he was to spend his remaining twenty-seven years
?years which, when in 1881 he was toying with an invitation to accept a Rabbinical post in an
unidentifiable (but presumably Orthodox) community, he declared to have been the best ones of his life.144
For three years, apparently, Schiller-Szinessy taught unofficially and perhaps supplemented his income by writing. But his presence in
Cambridge did not go unmarked by Henry Bradshaw,145 of King's College, then Keeper of
MSS. in the University's collections and sub?
sequently (1867) University Librarian. At mid? summer 1865 Bradshaw engaged him, at his
private expense, to work on the Hebrew MSS.
in the University Library, which, since they had been received from the Duchess of
Buckingham two centuries before, had lain
entirely neglected.146 There developed in the
embryonic Oriental Faculty the realisation that the University ought not to fail to take ad?
vantage of Schiller-Szinessy's presence in its
midst; and with the passing of the Cambridge University Reform Act in 1856 it had become possible to take Jewish scholars formally into
participation in academic business without recourse to backhanded invitation. Supported by Bradshaw, R. L. Bensly,147 of Caius, a
distinguished Arabist and a Hebraist, and others as well, a Grace was accepted by the Senate in
1866 for Schiller-Szinessy's appointment, on a
triennial basis, as Teacher of Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature.148 (By way of comparison it may be noted that a proposal to establish
Jewish Studies as a formally recognised academic discipline, with its own professorial Chair, had been put forward to the University of Berlin in 1853 but had been turned down.)149
When in 1876 his post (which had from time to time been renewed) was placed upon a ten
year footing, his title was advanced to Reader
and he was granted a stipend of ?300 per annum.150 The University also then conferred
upon him the title of M.A., propter merita;151 it was possibly the first occasion at Cambridge
when the degree had been fully conferred on a
Jew without repudiation or dissemblance of
Judaism;152 in any case, Schiller-Szinessy's accession to the University's Parliamentary electoral roll marks (together with Neubauer's
Oxford M.A of 1873) the beginning of an
epoch in which Rabbinic scholarship has
been accorded comparable status to that
enjoyed by its sister disciplines. He was, as it
happened, the very first graduand to be pre? sented by J. E. Sandys,153 the distinguished Latinist of St. John's College, as Public
Orator. In his Latin oration154 Sandys made
graceful allusion to the appropriateness of
Schiller-Szinessy's name, which, hard though it
might be on an English tongue, signified that enlightenment which the motto of his adoptive
University now bade him dispense.155 He was
admitted a member of Christ's College on 18
October 1877.156
We have now to see what Schiller-Szinessy made of this last phase of his life?close on
three decades spent entirely in academic
pursuits: and we shall do well to turn first to
his chefd'wuvre, the Catalogue of Hebrew MSS. in
the Cambridge University Library, a monu?
mental piece of scholarship that will both
perpetuate his name for all who need the
bibliographer's help and keep it green for
bibliographers themselves. It has to be borne
in mind that he was working in an age which
was, bibliographically speaking, an expansive age, before the days when printing costs have
made elaborate descriptions too much of a
luxury and microphotography has made them less of a necessity. But it is precisely because the austere limitations of the modern-style catalogue raisonne impose such limitations on him that the
Hebrew bibliographer of today is the more
grateful to have available in print, for com?
parison with the material that he is himself
examining, the detailed descriptions which were the fruit of Schiller-Szinessy's loving meticulousness and ripe scholarship. The first
volume of the Catalogue appeared in 1876,157 dedicated to Zunz; it covered but the Biblical texts and Biblical commentaries, and ran to an
average of some thirty-three octavo pages'
description per MS. A thin second volume,
dealing with twenty-five Talmudic MSS., was
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 161
printed but never formally published and is now correspondingly rare. The bulk of his
work, however, still remains in manuscript form; the holograph of closely packed fools?
cap folios has been bound up into six volumes and is available to students on application in the Anderson Room of the Cambridge Uni?
versity Library.157 There is a tradition that the Cambridge Hebrew MSS. rest under a
curse of some 300 years' standing,158 and it is
charitable to think that it is this circumstance that has effectively inhibited the production of a printed catalogue of more than a small fraction of them until today. Being myself the successor
of several scholars whose lot it has been to work on Schiller-Szinessy's material, with a view to
getting more of it published, I must pay my own tribute of gratitude for what I have learned from dipping into his pages, from the quite un-self-conscious prolixity of which a warm
personality vivaciously communicates itself to
the student: and I cannot do better than to make
my own the words of my father, V'!: Tf un?
counted hours [he wrote]159 spent in intense
study of a man's handwriting can in any way
bring about a knowledge of his personality and a spiritual communion with him, then I feel
that I have learned to know Schiller-Szinessy and certainly to love him'. In addition to the
University's collection he also catalogued, assisted by his pupil W. Aldis Wright,160 the
Hebrew and Samaritan MSS. in Trinity College Library:161 and his bibliographical
publications include a pamphlet (1878) des? criptive of the Leiden codex of the Palestinian Talmud.162
As well as bibliographical research, he found time for other matters, including two books. The first of these is an edition of David Qimhi's commentary to the first forty-one psalms163 on the basis of MSS.164 and early printed editions. Although the republication of this text was a service to scholarship inasmuch as it made available again Qimhi's controversial
passages directed against Christian exegesis which had been suppressed in the prints subse?
quent to the editio princeps,165 the valuable
research underlying it was wasted by his
omission to print a critical text.166 In preparing this edition he was assisted in the collation of
MSS. by his favourite Gentile pupil, W. H.
Lowe;167 and his preface, composed in the traditional rhymed Hebrew prose, is a de?
lightful piece of autobiography. It not only records their joint labours at Paris in the
Bibliotheque Nationale,168 in which connection
Schiller-Szinessy generously allots most of the
credit to his pupil; but it also lists both his teachers in his Hungarian youth and the
distinguished roll of his own pupils in Cambridge.169 An index of the academic
climate there in the eighties is afforded by the
fact that the dedication to George Phillips,170 President of Queens' College and himself a
pupil of Schiller-Szinessy and a Syriac scholar
of ability, takes the form of a poem indited not
in Hebrew but Aramaic. Another book?a
slight affair?was a reprint of the Hebrew account of travels in Morocco at the end of the
eighteenth century, entitled Massa Ba'arab,111
by the Mantuan Jewish poet and translator
Samuel Aaron Romanelli.172 Further items to come from his pen were contributions to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica113 in which the articles on Mishnah, Targum, Talmud, Sa (adiah, Maimonides, etc., are his, and
also articles connected with psalmody in
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible.174 The full list of his academic publications in so far as it has
proved possible to reconstruct it is set out below
(Appendix III), together with his contributions to the Jewish (and, very occasionally, the
general) press, particularly the Jewish World; at the fringe of which there stand his not in?
frequent involvements in the correspondence columns. Here he shows himself, indeed, at his worst: for in the heat of controversy with
Schechter, Neubauer, and others he was some?
times deserted by that modesty to which those
who had personal knowledge of him testify.175 Though Neubauer, Schechter, and Schiller
Szinessy between them represented the zenith of Jewish scholarship in late nineteenth
century England, they scarcely constituted a
triumvirate; and when any one of them scented
battle in the press, imputations of scholarly
incompetence, plagiarism, and questionable
integrity tended to fly thick and fast.176 If in its leading article with which the Jewish Chronicle accompanied its own obituary notice177 on
162 Raphael Loewe
Schiller-Szinessy it not unfairly commented
that he had at times 'sinned against the canons
of good taste in speaking of himself and others', the editors of the Jewish weeklies must them?
selves be held in part to blame, since they were
happy enough to give their outraged corres?
pondents as much acreage of newsprint as they chose to fill. No doubt it was all great fun; and one hopes that it did not always rankle after?
wards. Schechter, I am sorry to say, somewhat
ungenerously pursued his vendetta beyond the
grave, and a decade after Schiller-Szinessy's death he was still disparaging him in his lectures to Cambridge undergraduates.178
We may perhaps deduce what Schiller-Szinessy
might have said, had the tables been turned, from a story that illustrates his half-belief in the
power of cursing. He is alleged to have com?
mented, regarding some other controversialist
who had predeceased him, that although he had
himself procured the other's demise, he had not
consigned his soul to Gehenna; since he would, on account of his great learning, be required elsewhere.179
The lecture-room, as well as the library, has
claims on a don's time; and Schiller-Szinessy's
gifts as a teacher are attested in the explicit statement of Israel Abrahams180 and mirrored in his own pupils' achievements. He was,
indeed, so sedulous for their examination success that he actually lectured to them from his bed a week before his death. A public lecture delivered before the Vice-Chancellor and Senate in 1882 on the famous 53rd
Chapter of Isaiah was printed as delivered;181 and there survive in the Cambridge University
Library MS. notebooks182 of his pupil E. B.
Cowell183 containing notes on the Talmudic tractate Berakhoth taken at Schiller-Szinessy's lectures in 1877, as well as notes on the Zonar
by Cowell embodying one on Heykaloth
symbolism, marked as derived from 'Rabbi
Szinessy'.184 The fruit of this work matured in
1892, when Cowell, who was the first Pro?
fessor of Sanskrit at Cambridge, was president of the Aryan section of the London Congress of
Orientalists. In his inaugural address he
suggested that a comparison of the discussions
recorded in Talmudic literature with the Sanskrit P?rva Mim?ms? would be a worth
while study, and pointed to the parallel between the Mim?ms? canon regarding the relative
value of proofs for subordinacy with the
thirteen rules of Rabbi Ishmael for halakhic exegesis.185 Of Schiller-Szinessy's pupils who
cultivated Rabbinics sufficiently to achieve
scholarly recognition themselves the best known are Charles Taylor,186 Master of St. John's and
colleague of Schechter in the acquisition of the
Cairo Genizah for the University, who edited the Ethics of the Fathers, and his beloved disciple
W. H Lowe,187 of Christ's, editor of the
Cambridge MS. of the Mishnah.188 Another, A. W. Streane,189 of Corpus, translated the
Gemara to the tractate Hagigah into English.190 Before 1890 a Jewish undergraduate was indeed a rar a avis in Cambridge (Israel Gollancz191 was one), and although Jews who were up before that date of course met Schiller
Szinessy,192 his only Jewish pupil seems to have
been Harry S. Lewis,193 the communal worker, who was also one of his successors in the
pulpit of the Manchester Reform Congrega? tion. The roll of his pupils listed by himself in 1883,194 and supplemented from other sources,
musters two subsequent bishops,195 one
dean,196 three heads of Cambridge colleges197 and one of an Australian college,198 seven
professors,199 a Reviser of the English Bible in
the person of W. Aldis Wright,200 in addition to a number of others, some of whose names are
honoured in circles of Biblical scholarship but not so well known outside them.201 It is a
record in which any Cambridge don might take
legitimate pride, and one which eminently justified the modest claim which Schiller
Szinessy was fond of advancing, that he was 'the
disciple of great teachers and the teacher of
great disciples'.202 He was a popular member of Christ's
College senior combination room, and although the staunchest adherence to the dietary laws
restricted him to boiled fish in hall, he enjoyed the convivial company of college feasts.203 In
the town he was known, affectionately, as 'The
Rabbi', and in the wider University he was accorded respect. Legend, indeed, credited him with the thaumaturgical powers of a
Ba'al Shem: for when on one winter Friday afternoon he had been accidentally locked inside
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 163
the precincts of the Senate House and the old
University Library (now the Squire Law
Library), had he not found himself miraculously
transported outside the railings ? 2 04 By virtue of
his position he was able in 1887 to sponsor an
appeal for funds for the rebuilding of Eperies, his old alma mater, when the town was burnt
out; and the subscription list of those who
responded205 includes the names of leading
lights in Anglo-Jewry, the established Church, and both ancient Universities. Five years
before, on the outbreak of violent persecution of the Jews in Russia, a meeting had been held
in the Cambridge Guildhall convened at the request of no fewer than fourteen heads of
Cambridge Colleges, together with many other leading figures in town and gown.206
Anglo-Jewry was represented by Arthur
Cohen,207 who had been President of the
Cambridge Union in 1853, and was currently President of the Board of Deputies, and by
Schiller-Szinessy, who moved an urbane, if
generously autobiographical, vote of thanks208
to the Mayor?ending with the invocation of
the divine blessing on town and University. The fact that he was, in a sense, himself the
instrument of that blessing is evinced by the
manifestations of respect to his memory when
he died,209 on Tuesday, 11 March, 1890,
leaving a widow and four surviving children.210
He was buried in a small Jewish plot adjoining the main town cemetery at Ipswich.211
Schiller-Szinessy's personality comes through both in his writing, which even in matters
bibliographical tends always to be idiosyncratic, and in a few anecdotes of which he is the
centre. In his reminiscences212 his pupil W. H.
Lowe records his abstemiousness,213 which
was yet free from asceticism, his fascination by the sight of precious stones displayed in shop
windows, and his humour. He could never allow
the divine title Ribbono shel 'olam to go by with? out rendering it, as he had once heard an un?
lettered synagogal official render it, by 'Lord
of the University'.214 An orally transmitted
tradition tells how he once cast his vote in the
Senate House at a Parliamentary election.
The Vice-Chancellor, presiding over the poll as
returning officer, had tentatively queried
Schiller-Szinessy's entitlement to vote; where
upon he recalled to his companion, Lowe, that
he had been lecturing the previous day on the
text of Zechariah, iii, 1, 6and Satan was standing at his right hand to accuse him*. 'Last night', he
said, 'the devil appeared to me in the guise of
the Vice-Chancellor, and challenged my right to vote today. I have consequently brought with
me my Patent of Naturalization . . .',215 and he
proceeded to pull a long envelope out of his
pocket. The Vice-Chancellor confusedly
apologised; 'but,' commented Schiller-Szinessy
subsequently, 'it is a good thing that the Vice
Chancellor did not examine the envelope, for in
error I had taken with me not my Naturalisa?
tion papers, but my insurance policy'.216 How are we to sum him up? As a scholar,
he was an early if lesser figure in the movement
that gave post-Biblical Jewish studies an
academic standing emancipated from Christian
theology, which even now often claims academic
suzerainty over the Hebrew Bible. He had not,
indeed, the mental self-discipline or critical
ability of Neubauer, or the perceptiveness of
Schechter. But he did possess not only a deep
personal piety and sturdy spiritual self-discipline but also a love and an infectious enthusiasm
for Jewish learning and institutions, which
found its reward in the solid Hebraic and
Rabbinic achievements of a distinguished list of
pupils. More important, perhaps, he imbued a
wider circle of students and colleagues with an
appreciative attitude towards the positive
aspects of Rabbinism. His own modesty and
genial disposition will have contributed
towards this, as also his marked tolerance and
appreciation of the validity, for others, of their
own convictions.217 This cannot, in the context
of his whole life-story, be ascribed to mere
indifference; and it is therefore the more
remarkable that he could extend the same
appreciative open-mindedness towards an
ex-Jewish convert to Christianity.218 Such an
attitude of mind is naturally exposed to detrac?
tion and misrepresentation: and those who
have seen in him a mere obsequious and
unprincipled turncoat, prepared to play what?
ever tune the paymaster of the hour might choose to call,219 seem to me to take in?
sufficient note of a strength of character
evinced by him on occasions when it was in
164 Raphael Loewe
patent discord with his own material interest. It is significant, too, that the legends surround?
ing him that continued to circulate in
Cambridge for half a century after his death,220
quaint though they be, contain none known to me (save perhaps the atavistic quirk of a
belief in the efficacy of curses) that suggests any
self-centredness, self-seeking, or any cynical side to his character. The presence of a resident
M.A. who was himself neither an apostate from Judaism nor in effect a crypto-Jew, but
who instead lived a full Jewish life while not holding himself aloof from the social life of his College, had a certain civic as well as an
academic significance in Cambridge: for it meant that both for town and gown the Jew was no longer an unknown or mysteriously transient figure, but became identified with a
familiar character, traversing Hills Road and
St. Andrew's Street as he made his way to
synagogue of a Sabbath morning in a British
long-tailed coat and white tie.221
Within the wider Anglo-Jewish context, he
emulated the example of his forefather
Abraham, who (according to Rabbinic tradi?
tion)222 wherever he went would preach the
word of God, and the remarkable impact that
he made from the pulpit was perhaps enhanced, in the staid setting of established Victorian
Jewry, by the fact that the preacher had shed
his blood in the cause of Hungarian liberty. His emphasis on Jewish religious education for
the young, and his markedly successful results
while actively concerned with it, were of a
piece with the religious conservatism that his
example perhaps, rather than his leadership, was able to imprint on his dissident congrega
tion in Manchester so long as he stood at its
head. That he was not a reformist, in spite of his acceptance of the rabbinate of the Man?
chester Reform synagogue, is underscored not
merely by his basing his religious training of the young on what are Albo's three principles of
Judaism223 and the upbringing that he gave his own children,224 but by a contribution to
the press225 written within ten weeks of his own death; in it he gently dissociates himself
from such endeavours as Ludwig Philipp son's226 Israelitische Religionslehre, since 'we
believe that the Jews ought to have only one
Catechism and only one Book of Religious Instruction (the Bible and the Talmud)'. As
far as concerns communal harmony and soli?
darity, he had clearly been wrong-headed in
almost inviting a casus belli from Adler and a
snub from responsible communal leadership in
Manchester. But had Adler had the perspicacity to see that Schiller-Szinessy's undoubted gifts
were potentially a tremendous advantage to
him in his scheme for the unification of the English Ashkenazi synagogue, and had he set
himself tactfully to woo Schiller-Szinessy's
cooperation227, the synagogal pattern of the
second half of the nineteenth century might have been somewhat different in England. But
if Manchester lost a minister, not only Cam?
bridge but the republic of Hebrew letters
gained a servant. It was Schiller-Szinessy's boast that he was the teacher of great disciples. To be just that was the ideal of the Men of Great
Synagogue:228 and it is no mean epitaph.
*** This paper was delivered to the Society on 18 June 1962.
APPENDIX I Text of Flysheet (see Doc. (ii), 9); another
copy of the original is in the Loewe Collection. See supra, p. 155.
to the members of the manchester con?
gregation of british jews.
Office of the Rabbi, 20 South Hall Street, Strangeways,
Manchester, Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5618 {March 16th, 1858).
Dearly Beloved, Under the aid of a gracious Providence, the
Synagogue, raised through your generous endeavours and the solicitude of those worthy sons of Yisrael whom you have entrusted with
the external government of our Congregation, is on the eve of being opened for public worship.
Within a few days, a building, creditable to all engaged in its erection, will be ready to receive
you for prayer and thanksgiving to Him, who is
the fountain-head of all goodness and grace:
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 165
and on me, your spiritual guide, will devolve the
pleasing duty of consecrating the holy edifice.
Let me avail myself of this opportunity for the
purpose of addressing to you a few earnest
remarks, which, I trust, will have the effect of
drawing still closer the sacred ties which
connect me with your respected body. In the first place, let my soul praise the Lord
for all His mercy shown me during the period of my spiritual connection with you. Although,
owing to circumstances over which I had no
control, my official activity during the last
eighteen months has had but little scope, I am
happy to say that this time has not been allowed to pass totally unimproved. I look back with
much gratification on the solemn services which
united us in prayer on various occasions, but
particularly on those at the laying of the
foundation-stone for our sacred Temple, and
during the season of our great festivals in the
month of Tishri. Nor has the performance of Divine Service, according to our ritual, ceased for a
single day since Pessach last!
And, in the next place, let me most heartily thank you for the personal attachment, evinced
towards me by the fact of my election to be
your religious teacher. I remember, with
gratitude, that it was mainly owing to the
exertions of the active members of your con?
gregation that I was called, more than seven
years back, to fill the Rabbinical chair in the then Hebrew congregation of Manchester.
No one, beloved brethren, can be more
thoroughly penetrated with the consciousness
of my imperfections than myself; nevertheless, I am free to declare that, however I may have
failed in the selection of the right means, I have
nothing to reproach myself with as to the ends I
always proposed to myself in the service of my God and my people. My aim has constantly been to promote, by moderate improvement, the
real religious reformation of my fellow
worshippers: to eject from the Temple of the
Lord everything derogatory to decorum; to lop off all those excrescences from ceremonial
religion, which?though at one time useful?
had, through the progress of the age and the change of circumstances, become subversive of
the original purpose; and to introduce, in their
stead, institutions directly calculated to revive
the Idea and the Power of biblical Judaism. I may refer to the partial abolition, on my
authority, of the Piyutim from the service in use at the late Halliwell-street Synagogue; to
the introduction of religious confirmation for
the young of both sexes; to the institution of an
English service on behalf of departed souls, &c.;
but, above all, to the delivery of sermons on
Sabbaths, festivals, and all solemn occasions, and to the religious instruction afforded on
Wednesdays and Sundays to the children of the
community in?that establishment, so creditable
to its patrons?the Manchester Jews' School! /
cannot sufficiently deplore that time was not allowed me to carry out these endeavours?in peace. You are aware that certain persons, whose motives I
will not scrutinise, industriously cast suspicion on the sincerity of my exertions, representing
(with strange inconsistency!) to those of a
conservative leaning, that mine were extravagant efforts at innovation, and to those of a progressive turn of mind, that I mainly laboured to re
plunge the congregation, under my guidance, into the religious barbarism of the middle ages.
By the mercy of God, and by your kindness, I have been placed in a position, practically, to
prove, that as, on the one hand, I am far from
wishing to abolish anything that is dear to the
Jew, and that can stand the test of biblical and
historical criticism, so, on the other hand, I am
equally remote from wishing to uphold any?
thing that tends to retard the legitimate develop? ment of the Religious Idea in Yisrael.
Now, dearly beloved, let me most earnestly beseech you to support me in my endeavours to
ameliorate the religious and moral condition of
my community. Foremost of all, come and wor?
ship with me agreeably to the forms established
in our Synagogue. The Prayer-book, originally
adopted by our esteemed sister-congregation in London, contains all that is deservedly valued
in the rituals of both the Sephardim and
Ashkenasim. Now, granting that nothing human is perfect, and hence that a time may come when there will be a necessity of altering one or the other passage capable of improve?
ment (as has been, and ever will be the case),
still, in its totality and principle, this Prayer book is the efflux of biblical and historical truth. I, on my part, will instruct you in the
166 Raphael Loewe
principles of our Holy Religion, on every Sabbath and Festival, &c., to the best of my limited ability. Secondly, I pray you, give me
your confidence; let no event, either public or
private, so it be connected with religion, pass without claiming my services; allow me to
heighten your joys, in joy, through religion; let me, through religion, assuage your sufferings, in sorrow. But, above all, tPDJH ]X)
give me the souls, the precious souls of your children; for material gains / care
not. Send your children to the semi-weekly instructions in religion; let me educate their
minds in attachment to the God and the law of our forefathers?the law of the Holy One of
Yisrael!
Dearly beloved, the Pessach draws nearer, the spring-tide of our religious existence; the
time for commemorating our deliverance, not
only from the "iron furnace" of corporeal serf?
dom, but, more so, of spiritual bondage. Let us rouse ourselves, then, from religious apathy, and awake to a life of godliness and true piety. Let us, individually and collectively, take to
heart the honour of our congregation?the congregation of God. Let us duly consider that the eyes of all our Brethren in the land are
fixed upon us, and that with our worthiness or
unworthiness, the cause of vital Judaism in
Great Britain must stand or fall!
May the God of our fathers cause the light of His countenance to shine upon us, and lead us
in the right path! I remain, in fervent affection,
Your faithful fellow-worshipper and pastor,
SCHILLER-SZINESSY, Dr.
NOTES 1 ... T?n H?1? 'H Ps. xvi, 8. 2 Gen. xiv, 21.
APPENDIX II
CATALOGUE* OF PERSONAL AND OTHER DOCUMENTS OF SCHILLER SZINESSY DEPOSITED IN THE
MOCATTA LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON (Reference B.20 SCH).
The papers have been arranged in sections, each in a folder, as follows: (i) Hungary, (ii)
Manchester, (iii) Cambridge, (iv) pamphlets and offprints, (v) press-cuttings, (vi) marriage, children, obituary, (vii) Alfred Solomon
Schiller-Szinessy, (viii) miscellaneous.
(i) Hungary 1. School report, 3 November 1832, of
Salomone Marcus Schiller. Deutsch-ungarische Normal Schul. Signed Salomon Neumann.
Affixed embossed stamp (Normalschule d.
Israelit. Gemeinde i. Altofen K.K., with
crest). 2. Testimonium Scholasticum, Gyongyos * I must record with gratitude that in 1940 the
late Dr. Samuel Krauss, of Vienna, then settled in
Cambridge, assisted me in a preliminary sorting of these documents, particularly with Hungarian phrases and occasionally with Hebrew palae? ography.
Gymnasium, 25 July 1841. Affixed embossed stamp (with crest: sigilum [sic] . . . gyongyo
sinensis). Describes S.-S.'s father as mercator. 3. Testimonium Scholasticum, Eperies
Evangelical College, 20 January 1847, relating to examination held 4 December 1843. Signed Fridericus A. Hazslinszky, rector. Affixed em?
bossed stamp (crest, legend [?Latin]). Gives date of S.-S.'s birth as 23.12.1820.
4. Testament, in German, of Philipp H?nigsberg, of Szegedin, 11 September 1848.
Hungarian attestation.
5. Instrument, in Hungarian, of the widow Malkah H?nigsberg authorising S.-S. to act for her. Baja, 24 November 1849. Two seals (well
preserved) of Hungarian officials. Endorsed in
German, Vollmacht v. Malkah geb. H?nigs?
berg. 6. Letter, in German, of Hazslinszky (see 3),
former Rector of Eperies College, to S. Joseph, 13 Quay Street, Manchester, dated 11 Novem?
ber 1850. Testimonial to S.-S. (Typed copy of text annexed), intended for Manchester
Jewish community, which is addressed (L?bliche Gemeinde).
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 167
7. Letter, in German, of Leo Hollander, President (Vorsteher) of the Eperies Jewish community, dated 24 November 1850. Address?
ed to 'Euer Wohlgeboren', i.e., Manchester
Jewish Community. Seal (Crest: legend Eperjesi Isr?elita K?zseg). Typed copy annexed.
8. Acknowledgment (printed), in Hun?
garian, of donation towards Jubilee testimonial
fund for Prof. Andras Vandr?k. Dated
January 1884. Signed Bams? Anton (?). 9. Multigraphed letter, in German, dated
Budapest 1 November 1882, relating to blood accusation. Signed Leopold Lipschitz, Oberra
biner zu A. Szant?, and Menachim Katz, Oberrabiner zu d. Kreis (?). Encloses state?
ment (Erkl?rung) over the same signatures. Total 2 folios. Letter on headed paper, Hun?
garian (A Magyar. . . Izr. Aut. Orthod. Hit
felekezet, etc., i.e., Central Committee of
autonomous Orthodox Jewish communities in
Hungary and Transylvania), invites collabora?
tion in refuting the charge. Cf. Bib I. 45.
10. The fire at Eperies, 6 May 1887. (a) Photograph of Evangelical Church
(part of rebuilding appeal literature). (b) Reply-paid postcard addressed (in his
own hand) to S.-S. at Cambridge, dated 21
May 1887, from Prof. Otto Ludmann, Rector of Eperies College; in German. Gives
details of damage caused by fire, estimated
costs of rebuilding, and invites S.-S.'s
assistance in raising funds.
(c) Letter, German, to S.-S. dated Eperies, 16 July 1888, from the municipality. Signed
Andor Fuhrmann, B?rgermeister, and Geza
Kyss, Obernot?r. Stamp (Crest, and legend
Eperjes Sz. Kir. Varo? Hivatalos Pecsetje).
(d) Subscription list (third and final issue) of donations for Eperies. After 5 November
1888. Reprints acknowledgments from local
Burgomaster, Jewish Community, Lutheran
Church, Evangelical College, and the
College's Library.
Jewish contributors include Leopold de Rothschild, David Sassoon, Julian Goldsmid, James Sylvester, Joseph Sebag-Montefiore, F. D. Mocatta. Others are Christopher
Wordsworth, the Vice-Chancellor of Cam?
bridge (Charles Taylor, Master of St. John's
M
College), the Bishops of Lichfleld, London, Durham, and Ely, Wescott, Hort, S. R.
Driver, C. D. Ginsburg, A. W. Verrall, Prof. G. D. Liveing, Lord Rayleigh, etc. Cf. The Times, 9 May 1887.
(e) Receipt (Best?tigung), on-reverse of incomplete proof of (d), dated Eperies, 5 November 1888, from municipality of Eperies. Signatures and stamp as in (c). For S.-S.'s interest in Eperies, see supra, pp.
149, 151 and Bibl. 50. 11. Wedding invitation, printed in Hebrew
(TSn? *np?), dated 11 Tammuz 5557 [1797], to marriage of Moses K?nitz (^ttp), bookseller, of Altofen (pIKTD) and Friedl, daughter of Solomon Cohen, on 1 Elul
following. Text occupies 34 lines of Rabbinic type and is couched in Melisah style. Cf. infra 12, verso (6).
12. Single folio, containing: (i) recto
(1) Letter, in Judaeo-German, from R.
Sebi Hirsch Katz (?) to R. Libermann (?), dated 5 March (?) 1803, authorising pay? ment to the signatory's brother-in-law, R.
Abraham, of 3,000 T[halers ?] in part payment of a debt.
(2) (Second hand) Transcript of tomb? stone of Rezel (*?!*H), wife of R. Manasseh
Horin (pan), died 8 'Iyyar 5592 [1832]. (3) Copy of attestation (unsigned) stating
that the aforementioned 'widow' was grand? child of 'my aunt Hannah, sister of my uncle . . . Moses son of Vnn?,9 Ab beth din of
Boskowitz'. Dated 45th day of 6 Omer,
5592 [1832]. (ii) verso
(1) (Third hand) Draft of letter, German (not Judaeo-German) in Ashkenazi cursive
Hebrew characters. Requests an unnamed
Rabbi to arbitrate in a testamentary case.
From the stepchildren of R. IJayyim Wolff Baer, of Arad. Undated.
(2) Copy of letter, in Hebrew, in reply to the above, from an unnamed Rabbi of Pest,
reluctantly agreeing to arbitrate and re?
questing certain documents in return for
which quitclaims can be issued.
(3) (Second hand) Copy of attestation, certifying the gift of seat No. 210 in the
168 Raphael Loewe
women's gallery of the Altofen Synagogue to
R. Marqol B?ks by his stepfather. The seat,
together with seat No. 264 in the men's part, had previously been the property of Marqol Baks's father and the latter's wife Molsche
(? wVi?). (4) Transcript (Second hand?) of tomb?
stone of Shendel (VtW), wife of R. Me'ir Treibitsch (WWO), died 5592 [1832].
(5) Transcript of tombstone of R. Baer
Oppenheimer, died ? (date omitted). (6) (Third hand) Expression of good
wishes on wedding day to his son and daughter-in-law Peninah from Moses K?nitz
(see Doc. No. 11, supra). 13. Notebook, Hebrew, from S.-S.'s boy?
hood, containing part ii of animadversaria on
T.B. Kethubboth TOXto SirD1? VwiK T\"V2) (an? tn *]i nanpn. "won w p*?rr mmro shortly after 1834. Colophon, f. [10a] n"V2 *?snttn ymin Vran [rnip pnT]n pnr roa jtd iwpD (?)pwm fnrin rtDnam .rrMw rrnVst (?>pp pam s.-s.'s brother
Moses Isaac Gershon died newly-wed in 1834, see Qim., pp. x, xvii n. 21.
14. Two sermons, MS. Hebrew with inter?
posed German translation in Ashkenazi cursive
Hebrew characters.
(i) Sermon prior to the blowing of the Shofar on first day of New Year. ff. 4. Cf. Bibl. 27.
(ii) On Ps. civ (? fragmentary), verses 12
19. ff. 11. Contains two poems in Hebrew
(square characters, pointed).
(ii) Manchester
1. Flysheet, undated [1849-50], advertising S.-S.'s availability to 'give instruction in the
Hebrew language, Biblical and Rabbinical
Literature and History'. Address for applica? tion given as 19, Derby Street, Cheetham Hill
Road, Manchester.
MS. alterations in order to adapt for use as
advertisement in Cambridge. See pp. 152, 160.
2. Letter, dated Manchester 30 Sepr 5611 [1850], from the Wardens of the Manchester
Old Congregation, to Profr dr S M Schiller (Szinessy); expresses thanks for his visit and preaching, Tn bidding you adieu for the
present'. Signed Simon Joseph, John M
Isaac, Wardens. Seal (Hebrew and English).
Cf. Jewish Chronicle after 23 September, 1850, and supra, p. 152.
3. Flysheet, Order of Proceedings for the
Installation of the Rev. Dr. Schiller Szinessy As
Minister of the Old Congregation, Manchester, on Saturday, January 18th, 5611-1851, at Half
Past Two o'clock. . . . Includes special prayer, Hebrew and English ('implore . . . blessings . . .
on . . . our pastor, ... to bring again into thy flock such as have gone astray . . . may he
restore once more the broken fences, and
strengthen every weak point. . .'). See p. 152.
4. Illuminated address to The Reverend
Doctor Schiller Szinessy, dated Manchester, 9 January, 1852, from 'The Ladies of his Flock', expressing appreciation of 'his valued
services to the Youthful Members of his Com?
munity . . . and . . . satisfaction at the recent
appointment of the Reverend Doctor to the
important office of Local Rabbi to this Con?
gregation'. Accompanied by a 'Purse of
Money'. Signed Isaac A. Franklin (see infra, No. 10), Honorary Secretary to the Ladies, and
listing the following contributors: Mesdames
Philip Lucas, Henry Micholls, Horatio Micholls, Asher, I. M. Isaac, Ralph Isaac, Lewis Isaac, Segre, E. Moses, A. Sington, Levy
Sampson, B. Hyam, David Hesse, Henry Salomons, Leveaux, David Falk, Joel Casper, Samuel Isaac, Joseph Levy, Reuben Levy,
Benjamin, S. D. Bles, Saul Mayer, Philip Bauer, A. Spier, L. Beaver, I. Joel, Jacob
Casper, Louis Behrens, Oppenheim, Salomon
son, A. S. Sichel, H. Brower, T. Theodores,
Aronsberg, E. Albert, Davieson, M. Goldstone,
Jacob Myers, Nathan Mayer, Selig, Prax,
Voorsanger, Simon Joseph, Moro, H. S.
Straus, Jonas, Rudolph Behrens, N. Sington, Adam Casper, Lewis Levy, Sternberg, I.
Simmons, Sampson Sampson, Elias Levy, Louis Berend, Joseph A. Spier, David Cowen,
Franks, I. Goodman, L. Goodman, I. S. Moss,
Mendelson, The Misses Behrens, G. Behrens, A.
Behrens, Theresa Segre, Victoria Segre, Elizabeth Isaac, Alice Isaac, Henrietta R.
Isaac, Camilla Segre, Moses, Hyam, Leveaux,
Sampson, Sophia Sampson, Hesse, Cohen,
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 169
Matilda Davis, Lucas, Abby Lucas, Franks, Eliza Franks, Emma Franks.
See Jewish Chronicle, 16 Jan. 1852, with text of S.-S.'s letter of reply. The list of names probably
represents, substantially, the foundation
families of the Reform Congregation of British
Jews founded in 1856. 5. Letter, in Hebrew (Ashkenazi cursive),
from Eliezer Isidor, Grand Rabbin of the
Consistoire Israelite, Paris, dated 4 Noah 5615
[25 October 1854], replying to S.-S.'s query about conversion of certain unnamed persons
(female) desirous of adopting Judaism. Type? script annexed.
See supra, p. 159.
6. Form of certificate, in French, designed for signature by S.-S. but not in fact signed,
attesting his solemnisation of the marriage in
Manchester on 18 October 1854 of Alexandre, son of Moise Leon, of Paris, and Alice, daughter of Eleazar Moses, of Manchester, witnessed by B. Hyam, M. K. Wagner, and Godfrey Levy
(Registrar). S.-S. apparently added 'Docteur en Philoso?
phie' beneath the space for signature. Doubt?
less a copy of the official certificate.
7. Instrument of Divorce (Get), undelivered, dated Manchester, 13 2 Adar 5616 [Thursday, 20 March 1856]. Abraham b. Ephraim Ha
Kohen Fischl divorces his wife Rebecca d. of
Sebi Hallevi. Witnesses: Reuben b. Jacob,
Joseph David b. Abraham Ha-Cohen.
8. Short address, in English, MS. in S.-S.'s
hand, on occasion of a circumcision occurring on Sabbath Bo\ No names, no year mentioned.
9. Flysheet, to the Members of the Man?
chester Congregation of British Jews, dated 16
March, 1858.
Printed, Appendix II supra, pp. 164f. See
p. 155.
10. Songsheet, Confirmation Hymns (Fourth
Edition), 1860. Composed in Hebrew verse by the Rev. Dr. . . ., Rendered into English Verse
by I. A. Franklin, Esq., Honorary Secretary of
the Manchester Jews' School. Music by J.
Boss, of Eperies. Choir Director?Jas. F.
Shepley, Esq., Organist of the Manchester
Synagogue of British Jews.
English text only. Three stanzas preceding the Confirmation, three thereafter. The topic of
each of the first three stanzas is indicated by
caption, viz., God's Unity, The Divine
Revelation, and Reward and Punishment.
11. Testimonial, English, from Manchester
Congregation of British Jews to S.-S. on his
retirement from the office of Minister, dated
3 October, 1860. Signed Horatio Micholls, President. Seal (Hebrew and English) and
printed letter-heading give the Congregation's Hebrew name as
JVE fiSHS. States that S.-S.
left the Congregation of his own free will.
(iii) Cambridge 1. Fragment of printed pamphlet (8 pp.,
pp. 3-6 missing). Testimonials in favour of the
appointment of Dr. Schiller-Szinessy, Late
Professor of Hebrew at the Protestant College of
Eperies, and Rabbi of Manchester, As Teacher
of Talmudic and Rabbinic in the University [sc. of Cambridge]. [1866.]
The surviving portion reproduces letters
from J. Davies, Rector of Walsoken, near
Wisbech, Henry Bradshaw, Keeper of MSS. in
the University Library, and R. L. Bensly, of
Caius.
Lists (p. 8) Docs. Hungary 1, 2, 3, 6, Man? chester 11, Diploma of Ph.D. Jena, 1845, Patent of Naturalization, 1854, Testimonial
relating to Talmudic knowledge from Oberra
biner Pinhas Cohen, 1847, and Testimonial
from Oberrabiner Schwab, 1850, as available
for inspection by members of the Senate. S.-S.
had obtained confirmation of his earlier
semikhah (from Aaron Chorin) from Judah Loeb Schwab, of Pest, and Pinhas Cohen, of Telek; see Qimhi, p. xi, nn. 27, 28.
2. (a) Printed pamphlet, 30 November 1876, Cambridge, Orationes Primae ab Oratore
Cantabrigiensi I. E. Sandys pridie Kalendas
Decembres Habitae A.S. MDCCCLXXVI.
The first speech presents S.-S. for degree [of
M.A.].
(b) English translation of foregoing, Jewish Chronicle, 15 December 1876. (Refers in?
correctly to 'honorary degree'; Christ's College
Register states propter merita, but gives date
wrongly as 1877). 3. Letter, in Hebrew (Ashkenazi cursive),
from Dr. Christian D. Ginsburg to S.-S., dated 5 Norham Road, Oxford, 10 Sivan 5639
170 Raphael Loewe
[2 June 1879]. Signed (in Hebrew) David Ginsburg, and headed with the abbreviation
n"22. Typescript annexed. Ginsburg writes in
cordial terms, introducing himself to S.-S., whom he has never met, and asks for biblio?
graphical information regarding the Cambridge MS. of Moses ibn Ezra's Sepher he-anaq or
Tarshish (perhaps = MS. Add. 508, 3, 4a, 4b, or MS. Add. 1245). Mentions he has heard tell of S.-S. from Senior Sachs and from Neubauer
(from whose Oxford address he writes). German
postscript by Neubauer ('Geben Sie mir das
datum von Euer IT?ttll TlTHD von Fischl gekauft, genau wie in dr?cke und wo u' durch (?) wem gedr?ckt. Was kostet Lowe's rmfl?
[i.e., W. H. Lowe's Fragment of Pesachim,
Cambridge, 1879] f?r fre?nde? Schreib (?) deutlich (?)...(?) British M[useum] Monday A.N.).
4. Draft of a letter, in English, from S.-S. to an unnamed correspondent ('My dear Friend'), undated but mentioning S.-S.'s age as 61 (i.e., after 23 December 1881). Declines to become 'a
Candidate for the vacant Rabbinate', but dis? cusses the possibility of commuting at week?
ends from Cambridge were he in fact to agree to '[stand] at the head of such an ancient
congregation and its affiliated bodies'.
Geography, S.-S.'s Rabbinical past, and the
foregoing terms suggest that either Birmingham
(Singer's Hill), or possibly Norwich, or the Western Synagogue, London, may be referred
to. S.-S. had worshipped at the last-named
(Matthias Levy apud Cecil Roth, Records of the Western Synagogue 1761-1932, p. 185. Arthur
Barnett's Western Synagogue through Two Cen?
turies, 1961, throws no light on the matter). 5. Reports, Jewish Chronicle, 17 February, and
Cambridge Independent Press And University Herald, 18 February 1882, of meeting in the Cambridge
Guildhall to protest at the outbreak of persecu? tions of the Jews in Russia. Report in Cambridge
Independent Press of S.-S.'s speech proposing thanks to the Mayor (see Bibl. 18, 44).
6. Postcard, in Hebrew (reply-paid, addressed by S.-S.), from (?) Moses Samuel. . .
Hallevi, professing inability to trace the name
of the mother of a certain woman named
Sprintza on the basis of the vague details
supplied. Dated Poznony [= Pressburg], 10
July 1889. 7. Multigraphed letter of thanks, dated
Ramsgate, 15 November 1883, from Sir Moses
Montefiore acknowledging congratulations on his 99th birthday. Facsimile of Montefiore's
signature; the body of the text reproduced
(apparently) from hand of Dr. L. Loewe.
Embossed crest, Montefiore arms.
8. Fair copy, in German, signed by S.-S., of a (? unpublished) review, Der Neue Catalog Der Hebr?ischen Handschriften In der Bodleiana [by Neubauer, 1886]. Controverts favourable re?
view by Euting in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl?ndischen Gesellschaft, xlii, 1888, p. 31 lf., and speaks scornfully of Neubauer and (to a
lesser degree) Steinschneider (the gibe at the foot of p. 2 recurs in a letter published in the
Jewish World, 1 March 1889). Relates (p. 14) an incident which possibly cost Neubauer the commission to catalogue the Hebrew MSS.
in the British Museum. Submitted to Z-^.M.G. but not, apparently, published there.
(iv) Pamphlets and Offprints See Bibl. (a) pp. 172f. Items contained in this
file are marked Mocatta 'Library'.
(v) Press-cuttings
SeeBibL, (b) pp. 176f. Most items there listed will be found either in this file or (where appropriate) alongside the document to which
they refer.
(vi) Marriage, Children, Obituary 1. Certificate, in Hebrew (Ashkenazi
cursive), by Eliezer Isidor, Grand Rabbin of
Paris, dated 18 May, 1863, that Georgiana Eleanor Herbert has been accepted by him as a
proselyte and duly baptised under the adoptive name of Sarah b. Abraham. Consistoire
stamp. Typescript annexed.
States that nsm ftTT *W? T? BP ?WK m VwnVi pinb rib ?r? m bmb t> rya pKnVi rmb ffons mm
ynv nmix 2. Marriage document (Kethubbah) of S.-S.
and Sara Georgiana Eleanor Herbert, 1 Sivan
5623 [19 May 1863]. Witnessed by Isidor, Zadoc Kahn (?) (cf. supra, p. 159), and Joseph b. Menahem. S.-S. signs as mb TK? p ?? W
Consistoire stamp.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 171
3. (a) Certificate, in English, by Henry Samuel, M.R.C.S., Mohel, of 53 Mansell
Street, Aldgate, London, dated 22 April 1876, that TK? Alfred Solomon Schiller
Szinessy, born 20 July 1863 and circumcised by 'his Father, my Pupil' on the 27th, had been
duly and properly circumcised.
(b) Certificate by the same that he circum?
cised Wim pBTtt Sidney Herbert Schiller Szinessy on Saturday 22 April 1876 in Cam? bridge; dated Sat. even, 7 College Terrace,
Hill[s] Road, Cambridge. (c) Letter, in English, from the same to
S.-S. ('Dr Schiller'), 39 Mansell Street, Goodmans Fields, E., dated 15 August, 1861,
instructing him how to carry out the operation of circumcision on a child (not named or
identifiable). 4. Notice of funeral of S.-S., from Cambridge
by rail for Ispwich on Thursday, 13 March [1890].
5. Obituary notice, Jewish World, 14 March 1890.
6. Dr. S. M. Schiller-Szinessy. In Memoriam.
By the Rev. W. H. Lowe, M.A. Three articles,
Jewish World, 28 March, 4, 11 April 1890. 7. Letter of condolence to Mrs. Schiller
Szinessy, dated 14 March 1890, from A. F.
Kirkpatrick, Chairman, on behalf of the
Special Board for Oriental Studies.
8. Transcript of the entry in Christ's College
Register relative to S.-S., admitted Member of
the College 18 October 1877. Not all the facts as therein stated are accurate.
9. MS. (pencil), in English, Notes on the Life of S.M.S.-S. Ph.D. by his youngest
daughter, Henrietta Georgina, died Fulbourn,
Cambridgeshire, 1939. Typescript annexed.
Also letters from Lloyd's Shipping Editor, 28 June 1962, giving known shipping movements
between Trieste and Cork, April 1849, and
from C. A. Macartney relative to the chronology of the career of T?r?k. A letter from L. G.
Montefiore (1961) gives, from reminiscence
based on oral tradition, variant details regard?
ing S.-S.'s escape from captivity. 10. Photographs of S.-S., three-quarter
length, in cap and gown, dated on verso 3
December 1888, 'Der liebe Grossvater'; his
daughter Eleanor; and his daughter Henrietta
at the age of 28. 11. Engraving of S.-S., head and shoulders,
in cap and gown. Engraving signed I. Fischer. See Plate XV. His signature reproduced
pK noia mmn sma tk? p n?V&) .(rCTD1? D*?D "IDT
(vii) Alfred Solomon Schiller-Szinessy (b. 1863) 1. The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs.
Introductory notice. Jewish World, 29 April 1887.
2. MS. poems, now mounted in exercise
book (by R.L., 1940). 23 pieces, +one printed, viz., a metrical version of Ps. 2 ('Why doth the
heathen rage in ire, . . .'), from ?one of the
Jewish weekly papers. Titles and first lines of the MS. poems: (1) . The Singer. She gently strikes the
answering chords (2 copies).
(2) . Song. When fate was stern and love
denied. Dated Cambridge, 1886.
(3) . Song from the French. Come, little birds, 'tis I who call. Dated Cambridge, April 1886.
(4) . Blighted Love. No more I greet the noon-day light.
(5) . / Pray Thee Tune. I pray thee tune the sighing harp.
(6) . Sonnet. For love of thee my fainting spirit sighs.
(7) A Scene. He lingered on the winding shore.
(8) . My Heart. They stood beside the lofty walls (2 copies).
(9) . Sonnet. While here below we dwell, in every breast.
(10) . Evening Strains. Now evening wraps the earth with gloomy pall.
(11) . Lines. Methinks who dwelt on Earth in Heaven do know.
(12) . Contentment Within my soul I feel a touch of Heaven.
(13) . An Evening Walk. Now vanished is the noon-day light.
(14) . The Death of Sappho. The power of Love, the power of Love!
(15) . Unto The End. Within the Cavern of my brain.
(16) . Farewell! I look my last upon the hills.
(17) . Liberty. I care not to be he who dwells in state.
172 Raphael Loewe
(18) . Found. My heart was lonely, with one
empty room.
(19) . The Toy of Fate. I am the toy of Fate. Around me wheel.
(20) . Down to Death. On the wave walked
love and wailed. (Unsigned, and in a different
hand. A fragment of the same on the verso of
No. 23).
(21) . / Did Not Hear. I did not hear thee call me back to Love.
(22) . To a Flirt. You tell me, Mary, that you never flirt. (Dated Cambridge, February
1887). (23) . Sonnet to Death. Death! thou hast
garnered all the flowers of Life. (Fragment on
verso, cf. No. 20). 3. Exercise book (owner's name B. N.
Mehta, Downing College, Cambridge, 13
September 03), largely filled with stories, poems, a play, etc., in English. Hand similar to
but not identical with that of Alfred S. S.-S., ?a
brother or sister. Much colour and flower
symbolism. A similar piece, entitled The
forget-Me Not of Prince Lily. A Death-Play in One
Part, and in the same hand, is found in blank
pages of a Hebrew MS. now in my possession
(Rashi, nnm niOK, transcript by S.-S. No.
15). (viii) Miscellaneous
1. Transcript, by S.-S., in Ashkenazi
Rabbinic Hebrew characters, of Midrash
Bereshith Rabbathi from an unnoted MS. source (T T)Tt\[d] "?nxs? im nwin), ff. 191.
2. Bound volume of Der Ungarische Israelit, 13th year, 1886 (Budapest, ed. Ignaz W. Bak),
with a (?) specially printed leaf bearing dedication to S.-S., giving his title (inaccurately) in English. On the cover: Ehrw Herrn Dr S.-S.
In Cambridge 1886. 3. Biblical Hebrew Grammar, in English
(MS.), including exercises. Blue paper. The
hand (both Hebrew and English) is not S.-S.'s.
The first leaf has been repaired with fragments of a coal bill from a Cambridge firm, giving client's name as Coward. (Perhaps Thomas
Coward, of Queens' College, Tyrwhitt's Hebrew Scholar in 1838; of his sons, John Noble C. died as a medical student in Cam?
bridge, 1871, and another, Thomas Holford
C. (d. 1927), practised for a time there as a
conveyancer. Both were likewise at Queens', but neither apparently a Hebraist [Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses]).
4. Single leaf, with Abraham ibn Ezra's
reshuth to Nishmath D'TtVkV w hk?s (Davidson, Thesaurus, '2 No. 350) in Ash?
kenazi square characters (probably not S.-S.'s
hand). A few words pointed. 5. Correspondence relative to the latter
years, death, etc., of Sydney Herbert Schiller
Szinessy, died June 1964.
APPENDIX III
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KNOWN PUBLICATIONS BY
SCHILLER-SZINESS Y
(a) Independent works, contributions to
learned periodicals, sermons, etc. (excluding
popular press, for which see (b)). Brief lists of S.-S.'s published works are to
be found in J. Fuerst's Bibliotheca Judaica, ed.
1863, and M. Schwab, Repertoire des articles
relatifs ? ... la litterature juives 1783-1898, i,
Paris, 1899 (Soc. des Etudes juives). The additional items have been recovered from
Doc. (Appendix II), etc., and where appro?
priate the location of known copies is given. Items listed in printed sources but of which
no copy has been seen or traced are shown in
square brackets [ ].
[(1) 1844: Die Befreiung durch unsern Glauben!
Gottesdienstlicher Vortrag ?ber Jes. 44, 23 im
Tempel der Israeliten zu Eperies gehalten von
Schiller, Rabbinen.
Advertised at end of No. 3, part i, 1845. Printed at Kaschau; Reines, p. 173.]
(2) 1845: Der Bund Gottes mit Israel! Gottesdienst?
licher Vortrag ?ber Jes. 59, 21. zur ersten
Confirmationsfeier... im Tempel der
Israeliten zu Eperies gehalten. Leipsig.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 173
[(7) 1846: De quinque Librorum Mosis Authentia.
8?, Eperies. Dissertation (Reines, p. 174). Cited by S.-S., Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 1885.
Untraced.]
[(7a) 1847: mm Wh? mns. Abschiedungspredigt. On
relinquishing the pulpit of Eperies. Reines,
p. 173.]
[(8) 1848-9 (?): Verse rendering into Hebrew of the Szozat
(Hungarian patriotic song). Cf. Reines, p. 178.
Possibly published anonymously as 'patriotische
Ges?nge eines Ungars\ Untraced; mentioned by M.?.L. (also Win.)
as 'amongst his published verse*. Doc. (vi), 9, refers to a 'small Hebrew book, of poetry,
Prayers before and after the Confirmation
(Barmitzvahy, dedicated by S.-S. to (the memory of) his brother Gershon Isaac Joshua.
Cf. 12.]
(8a) 1848: Kochbe Jizchak, 12, p. 56f. nipfln. A poem,
dedicated to L. Lewy, written when S.-S. was
aged 12.
(9) 1850: The Olden Religion in the New Year. A
Sermon preached before DSTpfi in the Birmingham Synagogue, on the second day of the festival of the New Year 5611 (Sept. 8, 1850), by the Reverend Rabbi. . . late of the
Synagogue of Eperies, in Hungary, translated under the superintendance of the author, By
Miriam Nathan, printed by . . . the wardens of the congregation, pp. 8. London: Wertheimer
& Co. (Miriam Nathan subsequently married, c. 1850-60, a Wertheimer from Altona and a
connection of Samson W. See S.-S. in Jewish World, 1889 (Bibl. 70), where S.-S. erroneously describes this as his first sermon in England. It was however, preceded by Bibl. 35).
Jews' Coll. 50. h. 2(30).
(10) 1851: The feelings of the Israelite on beholding his
sovereign. An Address delivered to the United Hebrew Congregation of Manchester on the
10th October, 1851 = 1YD?. pBKH V?
Brit. Mus. 1358. i. 32(5). In a letter to the Jewish Standard, 8 June 1888,
S.-S. asserts that a second sermon by himself on
the same subject, in German, had also been
printed. No details given.
(3) 1845-1846: Die zweite Rabbinerversammlung zu Frank?
furt a M. Eine vollst?ndige Beleuchtung der
Tendenz . . . sowie insonders der Geistes, der
bei und in derselben vorwaltend war. Von
Salomon Marcus Schiller, approbirten Rabbi?
nen; Prediger am Israel. Tempel zu Eperies und
Privatdocenten auf dem Evangel. Collegio daselbst &c. &c. Zweite Auflage, Heft 1, 2.
Leipsig, 1845, 46. Brit. Mus. 4033. b. 68.
Mocatta Library (2. Heft, -J~ photostat of 1.
Heft). Part ii contains separate title: Die Versamm?
lung deutscher Rabbiner. Mit besonderer
Beziehung auf die zweite zu Frankfurt a. M. vom 15.-28. Juli 1845 abgehaltene. Durch Dr.
Phil. S. M. Schiller, Rabinnen; ... pp. 32.
Leipsig, 1846. Dedicated to his parents, on his
25th birthday.
[(4) 1845: Israel. Eine Sammlung religi?s-politischer
Kanzelreden in den Synagogen zu Miskolcz,
Kaschau, Eperies, Bielitz, Teschen &c. gehalten von S. M. Schiller, approb. Rabbinen;
Prediger am israelitischen Tempel zu Eperies und Privatdocenten auf dem Evangelischen
Collegio daselbst, &c.
Advertised at end of No. 3, part i, 1845, as
about to appear on subscription, listing titles of
30 sermons. Not listed in Fuerst or Schwab, but
dated by Win. 1845. Untraced. ? never
published.] See supra, p. 151, n. 51.
[(5) 1846: OtPn t?TTp. Die Heiligung des g?ttlichen
Namens. Ein Kanzelvortrag u.s.w. Leipsig. Listed by Fuerst.]
[(6) 1846: Bef?rdert das Wohl des Vaterlandes. Predigt
u.s.w. Leipsig. On the birthday of Ferdinand I
of Austria, 19 April. Listed by Fuerst.]
174 Raphael Loewe
5612, in honour of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Visit to that city. [Contains as an
appendix] a Dedication to Lewis Kossuth (late Governor of the Hungarian Empire), pp. 8+2.
See p. 153.
Brit. Mus. 4477. bb. 43; Jews' Coll. 25. c. 23.
[(10a) 1852: Inauguration sermon, Manchester. Reines,
p. 173.]
(11) 1852: Confirmation a genuine Jewish institution:
A Sermon, delivered on IWDtf bti JlttWI DY? 5612, (24th May, 1852), at the solemniza? tion of the first ceremony of confirmation, in
the Halliwell-Street Synagogue, Manchester.
By the Rev. Dr. . .. Local Rabbi, pp. 12.
(Dedicated to the children of the religion classes, viz., Henry Harris (Hac-cohen), Camilla Segre, Mary Prax, Esther Hesse, Henrietta Rose Isaac, Elizabeth Goldstone, Sarah Leveaux, Sarah Abrahams, Sarah
Nathan. Answers the critics of the introduction
of confirmation).
Jews' Coll. 25. a. 12(3).
[(12) 1852: The Gate of Zion, comprising occasional
prayers, addresses, benedictions, &c.
Mentioned among S.-S.'s publications in
obituary notice, Jewish World, 14 March 1890. Reines, p. 177. Probably includes No. 8. Un
traced.]
(13) 1855: Charity: A Sermon preached on behalf of the
'Benevolent Fund', at the Halliwell-Street
Synagogue. On Sunday, the 5th of Chanuccah, 5616 (9 Dec. 1855). pp. 8.
Jews' Coll. 26. d. 13.
(13a) 1856: KochbeJizchak, 21, pp. 64f. imp Vlp. A poem
on the Hungarians who fell in the revolution, after the Hungarian poet M. V?r?smarty
(author of 'Szoz?t', cf. {S)).
(14) 1858: Flysheet, dated Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5618
(March 16th, 1858), 'To the Members of the Manchester Congregation of British Jews'.
Doc. ii, 9. Reprinted, Appendix I, pp. 164f. See supra, p. 155).
(15) 1859: :*iam rmrrV fiKtt. Harmony and
Dis-Harmony between Judaism and Christi?
anity. Two Sermons preached on the Sabbaths m?W & *n*tt 5619 (December 25th, 1858, and January 1st, 1859) at the Manchester Synagogue of British Jews by the rev. the Rabbi, ... 1.
Judaism and Trinitarianism. 2. Judaism and
Unitarianism. pp. 16. Dedicated to Horatio
Montefiore.
Brit. Mus. 4478. bb. 98.
Jews' Coll. 50. h. 2(32).
(16) 1870-71: J?dische Zeitschrift f?r Wissenschaft und
Leben (ed. A. Geiger, Breslau), (i) viii (1870), p. 237-9; (2) ix (1871), p. 141.
'Aus Briefen'. (1) Remarks on articles by Zunz in the same Zuschrift, vi (1868), p. 194f., and Steinschneider, ibid., p. 122f. (Letter dated
14 Dec. 1868). (2) Preliminary report, dated 19 July 1869, on recent acquisitions of Hebrew
MSS. by the Cambridge University Library, including the Cambridge Mishnah Codex (cf.
No. 25).
(17) 1870: Appendix containing A Catalogue of the
Hebrew and Samaritan MSS, to E. H.
Palmer, A descriptive Catalogue of the Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts in the
Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8?.
Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co. Appendix, pp. 209-35. A postscript to the
preface, p. vii, reads: 'The Catalogue of the
Hebrew and Samaritan MSS. has been drawn
up by myself, with the assistance of the Rev.
Dr. Schiller-Szinessy, to whom, in many cases, I have been little more than an amanuensis.
William Aldis Wright.'
(18) 1872: Transactions of the Society for Biblical
Archaeology, i, 2, p. 263f. The Prideaux Penta?
teuch.
Description of scroll presented to the Society
by Captain Prideaux.
(19) 1876: TTCna nm [+full title-page in Hebrew].
Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts pre? served in the University Library, Cambridge.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 175
Volume I. containing Section I. The Holy
Scriptures. Section II. Commentaries on the Bible.
Cambridge: Printed for the University Library. 8?, pp. 248. Dedicated to Zunz. Covers Nos.
1-72.
Part III. Talmudic Literature, was printed
(without separate title-page and not formally
issued); pp. 94. Covers Nos. 73-97 (= MSS.
Add. 470, 1; Add. 1207. 2; Add. 1020-21; Add. 1229; Dd. 5.63; Add. 863.3; Oo. 6.70.2; Add. 554.2 (now 4); Add. 1009.1; Add. 487.2; Add. 487.3; Add.1236; Oo. 1.45; Add. 494; Add. 1207.3; Add. 478; Add 479.2; Add. 479.1; 1213; Add. 655; Add. 1209; Add. 674.4;
Add. 494.1 (now 508.1); Oo. 6.63. The holograph of Schiller-Szinessy's Catalogue
of MSS. in the Cambridge University Library, covering a large number of items not included
in the printed portion, is now itself an item in the collection, pressmark, Or. 1116-1121. The
six volumes cover MSS. in the following
sequences: 1116, Dd. 2. 30-15.5. 1117, Ee. 5.
8-Mm. 6. 32. 1118, Oo. 1. 3-6. 71. 1119, Add.
169-438. 1120, Add. 445-562. 1121, Add. 626-676.
(20) 1878: tWiflM n?m Occasional Notices of Hebrew
Manuscripts. No. I. Description of the Leyden MS. of the Palestinian Talmud. Cambridge:
Deighton, Bell and Co., pp. 16, 1 plate, + Specimen (pp. 4) of ed. of Qimhi on Pss (different typeset from No. 24). All issued.
Jews' Coll. 99. g. 1, bound with reprinted specimen of Catalogue (No. 19), Nos. 73-75, and
Excursus III (Talmud), ? not found in all copies of the Catalogue.
Loewe Collection, Bibliog. I. 9.
(21) 1878: The Academy, vol. 13, Feb. 23, p. 170f.
Review of Charles Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 1877.
Discusses Babylonian and Palestinian recen?
sions of the Talmud.
(22) 1882: Persecution of the Jews in Russia. Speech of the
Rev. Dr.... at the Meeting in the Guildhall,
Cambridge, February 15, 1882. Printed by
Request. Cambridge, pp. 8.
Mocatta Library. Loewe Collection, Antisemitism IV 8.
(Presumably the original of the speech
printed in Ungarische Israelit, 1882, Nos. 13-14, see No. 53 [c].)
(23) 1882: ??TW V?W mn an Exposition of Isaiah LII
13 14 15 and LIII delivered before the Council of the Senate in the Law School on Friday April 28, 1882, by. . . Reader in Rabbinic and
Talmudic Literature . . . formerly Professor
Publicus Extraordinarius . . . in . . . Eperjes, and subsequently Rabbi of the United Con?
gregation of Manchester. Printed by Request.
Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co. pp. 31.
(Dedicated to James Porter, Master of
Peterhouse.) Loewe collection, Bible VI 1.
(24) 1883: tzmsn os... ro^rmn ?nm pwnn n&on
TI&p . . ? TTT TEnV THKH [with full Hebrew title-page]. The First Book of the
Psalms according to the Text of the Cambridge MS. Bible Add. 465 with the Longer Commen?
tary of R. David Qimchi critically edited ... by . . . Formerly Rabbi of the Entire Jewish
Community in Manchester. 8?. pp. 130. Cam?
bridge: Deighton, Bell & Co. [Printed in Vienna.]
Dedication to George Phillips, D.D. (see supra, p. 161 n. 170).
(25) 1883: Foreword in Hebrew (entitled nST^?) to
W. H. Lowe's edition of The Mishnah on which the Palestinian Talmud rests, Cambridge, 1883.
(26) 1886 (November): Expositor, 3rd Series, vol. iv, p. 32 If. St
Paul from a Jewish Point of view.
See criticism by Schechter, Jewish Chronicle, 19 November 1886, p. 14. (Doc. (v).)
(27) 1886: my3 Km [Full Hebrew and Latin title
pages]. Massa Ba'Arab. Romanelli's Travels in
Morocco towards the end of the eighteenth century. Fifth Edition. With Preface, Notes, and Life of the Author by. .. formerly
176 Raphael Loewe
Professor Publicus Extraordinarius . . . in . . .
Eperjes. In two parts: Hebrew and English I.
Hebrew Text [all issued?]. 8?. pp. [v] + 72. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co.
(Dedicated to Judah Guedalla and his son and daughter-in-law, Henry and Jemima
Guedalla.)
(28) 1888: The Journal of Philology, xvi, No. 31, pp.
131-52. The Pugio Fidel [A postscript states that this article is
substantially the same as the article on Ray mundus Martini prepared for the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, vol. xx, but withdrawn out of
deference for Zunz, who in his last years had
prepared an article on this topic]
Jews' Coll. 37. c. 50 (offprint).
(29) (1875-) 1889: Encylopaedia Britannica, 9th edition.
Articles on Kimhi, Maimonides, Mahzor,
Mishnah, Midrash, Rashba, Saadia, Talmud, Tar gum (etc.). Full list in Reims, pp. 175-6.
(30) ? (after 1888): Our Redemption from Egypt and Our
Redemption in the Future. A Sermon for the
seventh day of Passover, by the Rev. Dr. . . .
Formerly Rabbi of the Entire Jewish Community in Manchester, London, pp. 8.
[p. 6, note # refers to The Times report of the death of the German Emperor Wilhelm, issue
of 12 March 1888.] Mocatta Library. Loewe Collection, Sermons III, 5.
(31) 1893: A Dictionary of the Bible, 2nd edition, ed.
William Smith and J. M. Fuller.
Articles on Aijeleth Shahar, Alamoth, Al
Taschith, Cithern, Cornet, Cymbals, Harp (?+ others).
(Only the first two parts, comprising vol. i
(A~Juttah) actually appeared, sets being made up with older parts. Proofs in Doc. (iv).)
(32) ? (Date uncertain): The Understanding of the Shophar-Sound.
A Sermon for the first day of New Tear. By the Rev. Dr. . . . Formerly Rabbi of the Entire Jewish
Community in Manchester. Reprinted from 'The
Jewish Standard'. London, pp. 7.
Mocatta Library. Loewe Collection, Sermons III, 4.
(33) ? (Date uncertain): At Evening-Time It Shall Be Light! A Sermon
for the Ne'ilah-Service of the Day of Atonement By the Rev. Dr. . . ., Formerly Rabbi of the Entire
Jewish Community in Manchester. London, pp. 3.
Mocatta Library.
[(34) ? Never published: The New Testament illustrated by the
Talmuds and Midrashim (I. Matthew). Announced as 'forthcoming' by S.-S. in
Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 1885. Probably still? born.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY, (b) NON-ACADEMIC PERIODICALS
AND THE PRESS
Note: The following list is based on a file of press-cuttings in Schiller-Szinessy's archive, now deposited in the Mocatta Library. Some
items not in that file have also been noticed; but the Jewish Chronicle,* the Hebrew Observer, the Jewish World, and Jewish Standard have not
been systematically scrutinised. It is possible that they might yield further items. (Chrono? logical readjustment has not been invariably carried out where extensive renumbering would
have been involved.) Reines, p. 178, refers, without dates or
details, to further contributions by S.-S. to the
Orient, Kochbe Jitzchak, and the Allgemeine
* As far as the Jewish Chronicle is concerned, virtually all references to Schiller-Szinessy, personal, literary, and as the writer of letters in his own name
(he may also have used a pseudonym, as was a very frequent habit in those days), in the years 1841? 1880 are now available in the Cumulative Index to that paper (compiled by John M. Shaftesley), now in the office of the J.C., and references after that date are in the continuation 1881- still being compiled by the same author. The index discloses some additional material concerning Schiller
Szinessy's clashes with the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, partly referred to in Mr. Shaftesley's paper on 'Anglo-Jewish Religious Conflicts in the 19th century', delivered to the Society for the
Promotion of Jewish Learning, London, on 23 March 1967. Two additional references to Rabbi
Schiller, of Eperies, occur in the Index to the Voice
of Jacob, 1841-1846, also compiled by J.M.S.? Editor's note.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 177
Zeitung des Judenthums, as well as to items in the
periodicals mentioned in the following list.
[(34a) 1845: Sabbatblatt (Leipsig, ed. A. Jellinek). Die erste Confirmationsfeier im israelitischen
Tempel zu Eperies. Reines, p. 173.]
(35) 1850: Jewish Chronicle, 19 July. God's Love to Israel. A discourse for the
Sabbath of 'Comfort'.
(36) 1850: Jewish Chronicle, issue following 23 Septem?
ber.
(Report: Manchester Synagogue. (From a
Correspondent). Devoted to two discourses
delivered by 'Dr. Schiller' on the first two days of Tabernacles ('. . . surely there was but one
wish paramount in all?that those with whom rests the care of this congregation's prosperity
may be able to devise means for the securing to
the Hebrews of Manchester the great privilege of periodically hearing similar discourses from
this rarely-gifted teacher in Israel'). Con?
ceivably by Tobias Theodores.)
(37) 1851: Jewish Chronicle, 3 October.
Light and Truth. The Two Indispensable Guides to an Israelitish Sanctuary. A Sermon,
preached at the Re-opening of the Hardman-street
Synagogue, Liverpool, on the . . . 21st September, 1851.
[For treatment of the term 'reform' in this
sermon, see p. 153].
(38) 1852: Jewish Chronicle, 16 January. Testimonial to the Rev. Dr. Schiller-Szinessy.
(From a Correspondent).
Reports presentation of address and purse by Ladies (Doc. (ii), 4) and gives text of S.-S.'s
reply. See supra, p. 152.
(39) 1852: Jewish Chronicle, 18 June. Of what significance is Jerusalem to Israel
through all ages ? A Sermon for the Sabbath
"[niVynn. By the Rev. Dr_Local Rabbi of Manchester.
Republished in The Asmonean, New York, 16
July, 1852, p. 103. (Not in Doc.)
(40) 1852: The Asmonean (New York), 23 July, p. 114. Mosheh the Model of every Rabbi. By the
Rev Dr. S.M.S.-S.
(Not in Doc).
(41) 1854: Hebrew Observer, 7 July. The Law of God as Delivered on Sinai.
Confirmation Sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. . . ., Local Rabbi, on .JWDIP last, at the
Manchester Synagogue.
(Full-length report of ceremony, and res?
ponses of individual confirmands. These are
named as Eugene Beaver, Samuel Goodheim, Albert Lev[e]aux, Bennet Oppenheim, Leopold Barnett, Aaron Flugeltaub, Victoria Franks, Rebecca Flugeltaub, Rosetta Hesse, Helen
Goodman, Rebecca Cohen, Sophia Goldstone, Rosa Golding, Rosa Nathan, Augusta Jacobs.
In the Jewish Standard, 8 June 1888, S.-S.
refers to a report of a similar ceremony on
Pentecost, 1860, in the appropriate number of
the Jewish Chronicle. This has not been located
either in the 1860 file or in that of any earlier year.
(42) 1856: Jewish Chronicle, 18 April. Publishes exchange of letters from Isaac A.
Franklin, Secretary of the Manchester Jews' School, inviting S.-S.'s continuance in charge of Jewish education after his ceasing to exercise
Rabbinical functions for the United Congrega? tion, and from S.-S., who replies affirmatively and appreciatively, from the address of 'Office
of the Chief Rabbi'. [Publication was doubtless prompted by a
current anonymous correspondence in the
Jewish Chronicle, which had reported S.-S.'s
resignation as accepted (4 April). A letter
signed attacked him (25 April) and was answered by ?^STI J1?X on 2 May, referring to S.-S. as Chief Rabbi of Hebrew Congrega? tions in England. This elicited a letter signed nilftNI TON, pouring scorn on the new
synagogue?a mere handful meeting for prayer
178 Raphael Loewe
in S.-S.'s private residence in South Hall
Street?and refers to his 'former admirers'.]
(43) 1856: Jewish Chronicle, 16 May. Translation of prayer offered at service in
South Hall-street, Manchester, on Sunday 4
May, Thanksgiving Day [after conclusion of the Crimean War]. Prayer composed by the
Rev. Dr_
[On text of this, and circumstances, see
supra, p. 156, n. 109.]
(44) 1857: Jewish Chronicle, 27 March.
An Address Delivered on Shushan-Purim,
5617, at the laying of the Foundation-stone of
the Synagogue of British Jews, Manchester, by the Rev. Rabbi Dr_
(See supra, p. 154.)
(45) 1858: Jewish Chronicle. 9 April (Supplement). Report of sermon at the opening of the
Synagogue of the Manchester Congregation of
British Jews, Park Place.
Reprinted by Goldb., p. 25f.
(46) 1858: Jewish Chronicle, 18 June.
Unsigned obituary notice of Judah Guedalla.
[Probably not by S.-S., who may, however, have
supplied some of the material.]
(47) Before 1859: The Asmonean (New York). The Late Rev. Dr. Salomon Sachs, of
Lichtenstadt. Chief Rabbi of the District of Ellenbogen and Saaz, in Bohemia. By the Rev.
Dr_
The Asmonean was published 1849-1858.
Sachs is stated to have died 'on 5th May last', he is not listed in Win., etc. (Press cutting in
Doc.(v).)
(48) 1859: Jewish Chronicle, 9 Dec. The Refugees from Morocco.
Abstract of a sermon preached by the Rev.
Dr.... in the Synagogue of the British Jews,
Manchester, on Sabbath rntP ^TT.
(49) 1860: Jewish Chronicle, 1 June.
Report of presentation of silver goblet to
S.-S. by the children of the religion classes.
See supra, p. 159, note 129.
(50) 1874: Jewish Chronicle, 27 March.
Y'l nW?. Hebrew text of a poem,
Cambridge University Library MS. Mm. 6. 24.
(51) 1876: Jewish Chronicle, 15 December.
(Dr. Schiller-Szinessy. English translation of
the Latin Speech made by the Public Orator,
J. E. Sandys, in presenting S.-S. for degree of
M.A. See Doc, Cambridge 2.)
(52) 1879: Jewish World, 5 December.
Jacob & Isaac Abendana.
Correction, 12 December. Further letter
26 December, with supplementary information
on the family from MSS. Cambridge U.L.
Hebrew Add. 1020, 1021.
(53) 1882: (a) Jewish Chronicle, 17 February. (Report of meeting of protest against Russian
Jewish persecutions in the Guildhall, Cam?
bridge. S.-S. moved vote of thanks to the
Chair.)
(b) Cambridge Independent Press and University Herald, 18 February.
(Longer report of S.-S.'s speech, for full
text of which see No. 22.)
(c) Ungarische Israelit, Nos. 13 and 14.
Speech on the Persecution of the Jews in
Russia. Presumably a translation of the Cam?
bridge speech.
(54) 1883: The Times, 24 January. Refutation of the ritual murder charge,
arising out of the Tisza-Eszlar Affair. Citing letter from J. B. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham.
Receipt of letters in the same sense from the
Dean of Peterborough, the Master of Christ's
and the Master [sic] of Queens' College, Cambridge, Westcott, and Lumby is editorially noted.
(For the Tisza-Eszlar accusation, which
began with an incident on 1 April 1882, see
J.E., s.v.)
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 179
(55) 1885: (a) Jewish Chronicle, 19 June.
Quotes Bib I. 23, pp. 30-31, with reference to
the quality of being a 'Gentile Saviour* con?
ceded by S.-S. to Jesus, and claimed by S.-S. to be allowed by Maimonides.
(b) 26 June. Objection. Signed 'M'. (c) 3 July. Aloof rejoinder by S.-S., dis?
daining to reply in detail to unsigned letter.
(d) 10 July. 'M' identifies himself as Isaac S. Meisels and elaborates his criticisms.
(e) 17 July. Long substantiation of his position by S.-S.
(f) 24 July. Extended refutation by Meisels, accusing S.-S. of obsequiousness towards
Christianity.
(g) 31 July. An anonymous correspondent cites Maimonides' 9Iggereth Teyman in support of
Meisels' strictures.
(56) ? 1885: Jewish World. Review of S. K?nigsberg's 'Alluph Thephillah,
Prague (Jacob B. Brandeis, for the Conference
of Jewish teachers of Bohemia).
(Contains reminiscences of S.-S.'s contacts
with former pupils of R. Aaron Kornfeld at
Golc Jenikau.)
(57) 1889: Jewish World, 15 November.
Review of Samuel Back [ =
Baeck], Tzeror
Hachayyim, Ged?chtnis (s)reden auf hervorragende Manner des Judenthums {viz., Montefiore,
Frankel, L?b Back, Albert Cohn, and Zunz).
(Contains material relative to the Bak family, of which S.-S.'s mother was a member, assert?
ing that Jacob Bak was descended from a pre
expulsion Anglo-Jewish family.)
(58) 1887: Jewish World, 25 March. Obituary letter on Adolphus Sington, late of
Manchester. [Records that for 30 years S.-S.
and Sington had been 'somewhat estranged';
Sington had 'only accepted the wardenship of
the now Old Congregation [Manchester] when utter ruin threatened it in 1857'.]
(59) 1887: c. 8 November.
Copy of circular appeal 'to some of our
coreligionists' for funds for the rebuilding of the
Synagogue and of the Evangelical District
College, Eperies, destroyed by fire.
(For the response to this appeal, see Doc. (i),
10> Untraced in Jewish World or Jewish Chronicle.
Copy in Doc. (v).
(60) 1887: Jewish World, 8 April. Records holding of religious services, with
minyan, in the Austrian Imperial Parliament by R. Simon Sopher (Schreiber), of Cracow, and
of facilities for Jewish worship afforded by Franciscans in Pest during the inundation of
Budapest in 1838.
(61) 1887: Jewish World, 8 July. Note on Jellinek's Gedenkrede over Joseph von
Wertheimer, died 15 March 1887. Mentions
that W. was responsible for securing Jellinek's
appointment at Vienna, having heard him
preach at Leipzig.
(On Wertheimer see J.E., s.v.)
(62) 1887: Jewish World, 4 November.
On Moritz Gottlieb Saphir. Refers to site of S.-S.'s own birth, (see supra, p. 148).
For Saphir, Hungarian humorist (1795?
1858), see J.E. Details there given as to his
birthplace do not tally with this account.
(63) 1887: Jewish World, 11 November. A MS. Hebrew Bible in the possession of W.
Robertson Smith, and its dating relative to MS,
Cambridge Heb. Mm. 5. 27.
(64) 1888: Jewish Standard, 27 April. The abbreviation ?"? after Sephardi sig?
natures.
(65) 1888: (a) Jewish World, 27 April.
Review of Rosin's Rhyme und Gedichte des Abraham ben Ezra (Denies that Ibn Ezra
possessed poetic feeling, despite his dexterity as a versifier, and states that Ibn Ezra was not
truly orthodox).
180 Raphael Loewe
(b) 25 May. Reply to Mr. Zimmer, reasserting that Ibn
Ezra was not orthodox even though doubtless a
fully observant Jew (Geiger's observant practice is compared).
(c) 15 June. Further reply to Zimmer, distinguishing
Abraham ibn Ezra from Joseph ibn Ezra, the
seventeenth-century author of the 6Asmoth
Toseph on Qiddushin.
(66) 1888: (a) Jewish Standard, 25 May.
Confirmation. [Contraverts letter from SJ\]
(b) 8 June. Confirmation.
(Further letter in answer to 'J'. reasserting
Jewish authenticity of Confirmation, giving details of five performances of the ceremony by S.-S., and appending remarks relative to
halakhoth le-Mosheh missinai.)
(67) 1888: Jewish Standard, 25 May. Tosaphoth. By the Rev. Dr_, M.A.
(68) 1888: Jewish Messenger (New York). 22 and 29
June. The Talmud. By Prof. Dr. ...
(69) 1888:
Jewish World, 21 December. OTTtt, ttrrm and pm* (Remarks on
Neubauer's articles in Revue des Etudes Juives, xvii, 33, accusing both Neubauer and Schechter
of plagiarism. S.-S. explains the phrase trrm DlDOin as abbreviated for '??Dm "TOO 'in
i.e., Rhineland).
(70) 1889: Jewish World, 4 and 18 October.
ffWlM nnSO n&Vtf Reviews of Leo N. Levi, The Intellectual and Ethical Development of the American Jew; Chayyim M. Horowitz, Tosephotho
'Attiqotho; David Kaufmann, Samson Wertheimer
(Polemises against Schechter's ed. of 'Aboth de
Rabbi Nathan. Contains animadversaria regarding Samson Wertheimer and his family, to which
S.-S. was connected, and an anecdote of how
Prince Esterhazy of Eisenstadt in 1722 secured
all the synagogal honours for his court-Jew, Moses, whom the congregation were ostra?
cising) .
(71) 1889: Jewish World, 25 October. Table Talk xviii* (* An unpublished work by
Dr S. M. S.-S.). Anecdote regarding Samson Wertheimer's
philanthropy. Reference is made to this series of Table Talk
in the Manchester Guardian's obituary, Bibl. 79.
(72) 1889: Jewish World, 1 March. Dr. Schiller-Szinessy and Mr. Schechter.
(Reply to attack by Schechter which had been supported by S. Singer and Neubauer.
Mentions that S.-S. had been a fellow-student
with Edersheim. The whole series of letters to
the press regarding this controversy, which
revolved round a charge of plagiarism, is listed
with references by Adolph S. Oko, Solomon
Schechter, M.A., Litt.D. A Bibliography, Cam?
bridge, 1938, p. 11, No. 35. It had begun in 1888 and was closed editorially on 15 March 1889.)
(73) 1889: Jewish World, 14 June. (Ruth iv, 7, 8.) (Explains na'alo in loc. as meaning glove
rather than shoe.)
(74) 1889: Jewish Standard, between 8 and 15 September. A long, polemical letter in reply to 'Joseph
Levy'.
(75) 1889: Jewish World, 27 December.
Review of D. Eaton's translation (vol. iii) of
Delitzsch's Commentary on the Psalms.
(Refutes the current belief that Delitzsch was of Jewish origin, but indicates that he had
been the pupil of Jewish teachers and was
competent in Hebrew bibliography.)
(76) 1890: ? Jewish World, 10 January.
Obituary notice on Ludwig Philippson. (For Philippson see J.E.) See supra, p. 164.
(77) 1890: The Academy, c. 1 February.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 181
Obituary notice on Dr. Karl von Hase, of
Jena. See supra, p. 149, n. 26.
(78) 1890: Jewish World, 7 February. Review of S track's Mischnatraktat Sabbath,
and abstract of an obituary notice by S.-S. in
the preceding week's Academy on Karl August von Hase, of Jena.
(79) [1890: (a) The Times, 13 March. Obituary.
(b) Manchester Guardian, 14 March (p. 8). Obituary (Largely concerned with anecdote
illustrative of eleemosynary vagaries of August
Sylvester Sichel and S.-S.'s handling of him).
(c) Jewish World, 14 March. Death of Dr. Schiller-Szinessy.
(d) Jewish World, 28 March, 4, 11 April Dr. S. M. Schiller-Szinessy. In Memoriam I,
II, III. By the Rev. W. H. Lowe, M.A.
(e) Jewish Chronicle, 14 March. Obituary and leading article. (Not in Doc.)]
APPENDIX IV
(a) Pedigree Menahem (Schill, i.e.,
"? *V)*
I Solomon =
Malkah, of family of Shabbetai Cohen, 17th cent.
(1) A relative = Me'ir/Marcus = (2) Theresa (Teltse) of (2) Schiller, of
Altofen, 1780-1861
4 sons, all
deceased by end of 1820
Antonia B?k;t married in Italy, d. 1859
Shabbetai Menahem 3
daughters
7 children deceased by end of 1820
Moses Joshua Isaac Judah:
Gershon, Rabbi.
1813-34; issue
d. during betrothal
Solomon Marcus
Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-90
Phineas Uri Hindel = d. aged Sheraga: Gershon
5, 1831 Rabbi, Schwartz d. after
1890 Eva
(1863) Georgiana Eleanor ( +Sarah) Herbert, of Manchester
1831-1901
Alfred (Me'ir) Theresa Eleanor Henrietta Geor
Solomon Schiller- Antonia d. un- giana, 1869
Szinessy, 1863-? 1864-5 married 1939; d. un ? Issue, with married
descendants living
(1963) in Hungary? * Abbreviation of HJQ1? "? TTItP, Ps. 16,8 (I have set the Lord before me), Menahem Me'iri and Abraham b. David of Posquieres.
t She was also connected ancestrally to her husband. Daughter of Phineas and Hedel B?k and
granddaughter of Jacob B?k, of the family of printers in Italy and Prague. Connected also with the Wertheimer and Oppenheimer families. Phineas B?k's sister Esther was the grandmother of
Adolf Jellinek.
Sydney Herbert
(Gershon Joshua) Schiller-Szinessy, 1876-1964; d. un?
married
Claimed descent from
182 Raphael Loewe
(b) Sepulchral Inscriptions From the Jewish plot in the Municipal Cemetery, Ipswich
(1) nasan psV nn ttk ira n??ii asrpn ptwn? a'^a tVk pst tk? p n?^m ann n> In Memory of Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy. M.A. Ph.D. Born at Buda-Pesth 1821 [sic].
Died at Cambridge. 1890. Formerly Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Manchester and after?
wards Reader in Rabbinic in the University of Cambridge, and of his daughter Theresa Antonia.
Born 1864. Died 1865. Oh how great is thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee [For the discrepancies of the dates as here given see infra, note 2.]
(2) In Loving Memory of Sarah widow of the Revd S. M. Schiller-Szinessy Who died April 21st 1901 Aged 70 Years Her children shall rise up and call her blessed.
SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS
Schiller-Szinessy's preface to his edition of
Qimhi's commentary on Psalms (see Bibliography, supra, p. 175, No. 24) contains some genealogical and
biographical material. This may be supplemented from the collection of personal documents and press cuttings calendared supra, Appendix II. Included therein are a MS. memoir by his daughter Henrietta
((vi), 9) and published reminiscences by his pupil W. H. Lowe (BibL No. 79).
On Schiller-Szinessy's death obituary notices
appeared in the press (Bibl. No. 79), and bio?
graphical articles are to be found in the standard
Jewish reference books, notably the Jewish En?
cyclopedia, the Magyar Qido Lexicon, and thence S.
Wininger, Grosse J?dische Mational-Biographie (see infra, abbreviations). Moses Reines's Dor wahakha
maw (Cracow, 1890), part i, pp. 162ff., 185, con? tains an article and a portrait (reproduced, plate
XV). In the matter of Schiller-Szinessy's escape from Hungary, the details given in these printed sources are hard to reconcile with information available from the standard histories of the Hun? garian revolution of 1848-1849 on the one side and
sundry details in Schiller-Szinessy's own documents,
etc., of later date; and it is probable that in this instance the standard source-books depend ulti?
mately on a certain element of exaggeration either
by his admirers or possibly, in retrospect, by Schiller-Szinessy himself, of the importance of the role which he played (see infra, nn. 58, 62). It is
likely that the source is furnished by an apparently (?auto-) biographical piece, referred to by S.-S. as
'Jahrbuch f?r 5640-1880, Budapest, 8vo, p. 6', in a footnote on p. 6 of item No. 23 in Bibl. I have failed to identify this, so far, with any Hungarian Jewish periodical available to me. (The only periodical published in Budapest listed in J.E., ix, p. 616f., that seems at all plausible is the Jahrbuch zur
Bef?rderung des Ackerbaus, Handwerks, und der Industrie unter den Israeliten Ungarns, ed. Ignaz Reich, 1872.) The records of what is now the Manchester Great
Synagogue and of the West London Synagogue of British Jews also contain important material.
I am glad to acknowledge the assistance generously given me by Messrs. Norman Cohen, Israel
Finestein, and A. L. Schischa in connection with sundry matters relating to the material here utilised.
ABBREVIATIONS
Bibl.?Bibliography of Schiller-Szinessy's publica? tions, supra, Appendix III, pp. 172f.
D.N.B.?Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 1885f.
Doc.?Documents, personal and otherwise, pre? served in the Mocatta Library, University College, London, and calendared supra, Appendix II, pp. 166f.
Goldb.?P. Selvin Goldberg, The Manchester Con?
gregation of British Jews 1857-1957, Manchester, 1957.
J.E.?The Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. I. Singer, New
York, 1901.
Kos.?Hungary and its Revolutions . . . with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth, by E.O.S., London, 1889.
M.Z'L.?Magyar ?mWo Lexikon, ed. P. Ujvari, Budapest, 1929 (Article on Schiller-Szinessy by R. Geltrnann, p. 772).
Qim.?Schiller-Szinessy's edition of Qimhi on
Psalms, see Bibl. p. 175, No. 24. Reines?M. Reines's biography (see supra, Sources
and Abbreviations). Win.?S. Wininger, Grosse J?dische National
Biographie, Leipsig, Cern?uti ( =
Czernowitz), n.d.
(Dependent on M. ?.?.).
NOTES 1 The name Mayer given in various works of
reference is unsupported by S.-S.'s own usage or by Doc; Marcus appears in Latin, etc., but never
Me'ir in Hebrew. His father apparently used both forms.
2 Doc (vi), 9, and Bibl. 62, Doc, (i), 3. 23 Dec.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 183
1820 was a Saturday. The date 12 Marheshvan
(5)581 given on his tombstone (Appendix IV) does not correspond and is doubtless an error, as is
certainly the allegedly equivalent civil year (1821 instead of 1820). 3 OTT!? p na1?!? p TK?, Qim. title-page and p. xvii, n. 15. Died aged 81, 20 'Iyyar 5621-1861. 4 Doc. (i), 2. Reines, p. 163, n. 2, records that he also held a Rabbinical diploma. 5
M.Z-L., Qim., p. xvii, n. 15. 6 Doc. (vi), 9. 7 See family tree, Appendix IV, p. 181. They had
been married in Italy (Qim., p. x). She was a cousin of the wife of B?r Oppenheimer, of Pressburg, and a connection of the Wertheimer family (Bibl. 57). Died 18 'Ab 5619-1859 (Qim., p. xvii, n. 16). 8 Bibl. 57.
9 J.E., s.v. Bak (A. Freimann). Bibl. 79 (Jewish
Chronicle). 10 Doc. (vi), 9. S.-S. tells something similar of his
regimen in the house of R. Ephraim of V?r?svar (d. 29 Shevat 5604-1844), with whom he spent his school holidays between his eighth and twelfth years (Qim., p. xvii, n. 19; Reines, p. 166). According to S.-S. himself (Bibl. 70), he was studying with
Kornfeld in 1837, i.e., in his 17th year. See also reminiscences of contacts with Kornfeld's former
pupils, Bibl. 56, and Qim., p. xviii, n. 24. Jewish World, 2 Dec. 1881. On Aaron Kornfeld (d. 1881) see J.E. 11 Doc. (vi), 9. On the plague, see Kos. p. 177f.
12 Bibl. 23, p. 6. Reines, p. 165. 13
Qim. pp. x, xvii, n. 21. He died 21 'Iyyar 5594 1834. Cf. Doc. (i), 13.
14 Doc. (i), 1. In a footnote to his article (Bibl. 29) on Aijeleth Shahar he refers to this institution as the
Imperial Royal Normal School of Old Buda and mentions a Hebrew teacher on its staff named J. H. Kohn.
15 See note 10. 16
Qim., p. xvii, n. 23, Bibl. 70. 17 Bibl. 70 (part ii). Oppenheimer was the
author of 1X3 *b (responsa, Vienna, 1829). 18 Doc. (vi), 9. Reines, p. 168. 19
J. L. Pyrker, 1772-1847, Archbishop from 1827; patriotic dramatist and epic writer (Grosse
Brockhaus, 1956, s.v.). Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 1885. No conversionist approaches were at any time made to him; Reines, p. 168, n. 2.
20 Doc. (i), 2. Also at B?torkesz and Dindis: Reines, p. 166f. A perceptive Franciscan teacher
(Ferenczy) initiated him into patristic literature; ibid., p. 167.
21 See note 10. 22 Doc. (i), 10 (a)-(e). 23 Bibl. 59. 24 Doc. (i), 3. 25
Qim., p. xviii, n. 27. Cf. Bibl. 72, listing Bachmann, Vandr?k, and Verney as his teachers in
logic (for Vandr?k see also Doc. (i), 8), and men?
tioning Alfred Edersheim (see J.E., Diet. Nat.
Biography) as his fellow-pupil. Doc. (i), 9, implies
that S.-S. also studied at Vienna. In the Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 1885, he mentions, in addition to the names here cited, the following as Christians
who had taught him: Szezsnitsky, Ferenczy, Eichst?dt, Munyay, Fuchs. He makes it clear that he felt indebted to them all for spiritual as well as for technical education. The names of the first two and of Archbishop Pyrker were regularly included
by him in his personal Commemoration of the
Departed; Reines, p. 168, n. 2. 26 Bibl. 77, 78. For von Hase see Enc. Brit., 11th
ed. 27 Doc. (iii), 1; Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe in Jewish
World). In Bibl. 23, p. 10, n., S.-S. writes of Delitzsch as 'my friend', and Delitzsch's home was at Leipzig, not far from Jena. Had they met, however, S.-S. would doubtless have made more of it in Bibl. 75.
28 In addition to the names mentioned above, S.-S. lists his teachers in Qim., pp. xf, xvii, n. 15f.
M.J^.L. and Win. mention particularly Hirsch Harif (Heller), of Altofen (Qim., p. xvii, n. 20, see also J.E.?he was the teacher of Chajes and Rapo port and died in 1834), Judah L?b Schwab (Qim., p. xviii, n. 27, J.E.; died 1857), and Aaron Tauber, of B?torkesz (Qim., p. xviii, n. 22). In Bibl. 23, p. 7, he mentions having studied under Karaite as well as Rabbanite teachers, but perhaps is referring to books of Karaite authorship. 29
Qim., p. xviii, n. 25, J.E. Died 1844. Reines, p. 169.
30 See note 28. 31
Qim., p. xviii, n. 28; died aged 89 on 14 'Ab 5634-1874, after 58 years' Rabbinate in Telek. As
Mr. A. Schischa kindly informs me, he was the son of Rabbi Lazi Cohen, of Koyetan, who c. 1792 1793 was accused on insubstantial grounds of
Sabbatean-Frankist sympathies. Phineas Cohen also used the name Phillip Glueksmann.
32 Qim., p. xviii, n. 29 (gives the date of his
death as 6 Tebeth 5635-1874/5, as against J.E., 10 Dec. 1869). 33 Doc. (i), 7, . . einen sehr begabten Kanzel? redner, u.s.w.' Reines, p. 169.
34 Bibl. 22, p. 4; Doc. (i), 4, 5, perhaps also 12. 35 Doc. (i), 6 (ausserordentlichen Lehrer der hebr?i?
schen Sprache und Alterth?mer). Contrast title-page to Bibl. 3 (Privatdocenten auf dem . . . Collegio) with that of Bibl. 23, etc. (Professor Publicus Extraordinarius). Reines, p. 169.
36 Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe). 37 Bibl. 74. 38 Doc. (i), 7. Bibl. 2, 3, part ii, p. 27. Cf. Bibl.
66, and similar ceremonies later in Manchester (infra, p. 153). 39 See J.E., s.v. Conferences, Rabbinical, vol. iv, p. 212.
40 See L. Ginzberg, Students, Scholars, and Saints, 1928, p. 200. I am grateful to Mr. Norman Cohen for drawing my attention to this reference.
41 Bibl. 3. 42 Bibl. 3, part i, p. [2], 'In den n?chsten Tagen
?im II. Hefte der "zweiten Rabbinerversamm
N
184 Raphael Loewe
lung"?hoffe ich mit Dir auf rein wissenschaft? lichem Gebiete zusammenzukommen; bis dahin nimm diesz!'
43 Ibid., p. 4, 'Tendenz . .. destructive, . . .
Richtung . . . falsche, . . . Gesinnung . . . unlautere, Geiste . . . des Unfriedens und des Zankes ist'.
44 Ibid., p. 10, 'ihre Duodezrabbinerchen und
Sedezpredigerchen'. 45 Qim., p. xviii, n. 25. The quotation may have
been suggested by reminiscence of its analogous application by R. Hayyim of Volozhin in his introduction to the posthumous (1820) commentary to the Siphra di-seni'utha by his teacher Elijah the
Ga'on of Vilna; the pupil is concerned to vindicate his master from the charge of depreciation of the
Zohar and of Isaac Luria. 46
Reprinted, Reims, p. 176f. 47 The summary of events here given follows
W. A. Phillips's article on Hungarian history in Erie. Brit., 11th ed., vol. 13, p. 916f., and, for the
military campaign, Kos. and the Cambridge Modern
History, vol. xi (chronological table p. 986f.) The most recent English presentation is that of G. A.
Macartney, Hungary. A Short History, Edinburgh, 1962 (see pp. 155f.). 48 See J.E. (art. Hungary), vol. vi, p. 500f.
(Alexander B?chler), following Bela Bernstein, Az
1848/9-iki Magyar Szabadsdgharcz es a ?sid?k, Budapest, 1898.
49 J.E. (L. Venetianer), vii, p. 93, Kos., p. 397.
50 M.Z-L., Win. 51 So (perhaps) Bibl. 1 (1844); Bibl. 6 (1846).
The list of sermons in Bibl. 4 advertised at the end oiBibl. 3, (i) includes the titles Gott, F?rst und Vater? land and Israels dritte und letzte Befreiung, which
may be relevant here. 52
M.Z-L., Win. 53 His pronunciation of it is indicated by his
Hebrew signature on (vi), 2 (W?TO-IX1?^?). 54 Kos., p. 173.
55 Doc. (vi), 9. 56 Doc. (i), 6. It is an interesting example of the
vicissitudes suffered by oral tradition that the story of Schiller-Szinessy's revolutionary activities should have become attached to the name of Adolf Neu?
bauer, later to be Schiller-Szinessy's opposite number at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, of whom E. Craster erroneously states that 'in his
youth he had fought under Kossuth at the storming of Buda-Pesth' (History of the Bodleian Library 1845-1945, Oxford, 1952). 57
Kos., p. 427. 58
J.E., xi, p. 102, locates the incident at Szegedin, M.Z-L. at Sz?reg (Win. Sz?res), but Szegedin and
Sz?reg in fact lie respectively west and east of the Theiss at the same point. Doc. (vi), 9 mentions
merely the River Theiss; Reines, p. 170, specifies a
bridge of boats. The Austrians forced the crossing of the Theiss here after the Battle of Szegedin on 5 August 1849. A complication is reference to an officer named T?r?k?according to Doc. (vi), 9, a captain, but described by M.Z-L. as a general
(tdbornok)?on whose behalf (according toM.^.L.) Schiller-Szinessy 'drafted the order for the demoli? tion of the bridge at Sz?reg and supervised its demolition'. T?r?k, an Austrian officer of engineers who went over to the Hungarians, was promoted general in Feb. 1849 and after the failure of the revolution was ultimately shot as one of the Thirteen
Martyrs of Arad (Kos. p. 488). He is recorded to have fortified Szegedin.
If Szegedin is abandoned as a location for the
incident, Debreczen may deserve consideration, for the Hungarians were fighting in that neighbour? hood (higher up the river than Szegedin) after the battle of K?polna (26 February 1849), when Dembinski was attempting to force the Theiss, eastwards, against them (see Kos., pp. 415, 417, Cambridge Ancient History, vol. xi, pp. 205, 211). Schlick, by whose forces Schiller-Szinessy was taken
prisoner (see n. 58), was in command on this front; but T?r?k cannot have taken part in the fighting there, since he was commanding the fortress of
Kom?rom (under a government commissioner), which was invested from about 7 February till 22
April. I am grateful to Dr. G. A. Macartney for information regarding T?r?k's career (Doc. (vi), 9, annexe), 5 9 His wounds, in six places, were severe and he was still limping (or worse) on arrival in Dublin; Reines, p. 171.
60 Bibl. 22, p. 4. 61 Doc. (vi), 9. 62 Dr. G. A. Macartney (privately, see end of
n. 57) hazards the suggestion that Schiller-Szinessy's career may have been confused with T?r?k's.
63 Doc. (vi), 9, J.E., M.Z.L. 64 Bibl. 22, p. 4. An anonymous sympathiser supplied him with Austrian currency and a letter of credit; Reines, p. 171.
65 Doc. (vi), 9, describes it as a 'Scotch fishing vessel'?but Trieste seems an unlikely port of call for such. Mr. R. C. E. Lander, of Lloyd's, kindly informs me that the master of the Asia, which sailed from Trieste on 31 January 1850 and arrived at Queenstown on 26 March, was named Campbell, which might account for the alleged Scots connec? tion. This length of voyage (54 days) might cohere
with the 60 days' voyage of which S.-S.'s daughter heard tell (Doc. (vi), 9). 26 March 1850 was a
Tuesday, and in that year Passover eve fell on
Wednesday, 27 March?hardly time for a contem?
plated voyage to London. There seems to be little reason to doubt Reines's circumstantial reference
(p. 171) to the Royal Adelaide, even though S.-S.'s
daughter (cf. also W. H. Lowe, Bibl. 79) in her later years stated that the (unnamed) vessel that sank was out of Trieste, and that he took the risk of waiting there until the conclusion of Passover
(11 April 1849 or 4 April 1850). If S.-S. was cap? tured not at Szegedin in August 1849, but elsewhere in late February or early March (see note 57) and
escaped almost immediately, he might just have reached Ireland within the time available (Passover
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 185
began in 1849 on 3 April), but this is improbable; and Lloyd's records show no shipping movements
during the material period that would fit (Pantaloon, Trieste 7 February?Cork 24 March; Virgilia, arrived Cork from Trieste 22 March; Alexander Cochrane, Trieste 20 January?Cork 18 March; Why-Not, Trieste 20 January?Cork 17 March). It is easier to assume that S.-S. was a prisoner of
war from August or even March 1849 (see note 58) until the end of that year, than to assume that he
escaped from Trieste soon after 11 April 1849, spent a year unaccounted for, and then reached Ireland late in March 1850.
66 Doc. (vi), 9. 67
Bibl., 79 (Jewish Chronicle). Reines, p. 171. 68 Doc. (vi), 9. The twelfth and final volume
appeared in 1849. 69 Doc. (ii), 1. 70 Bibl. 35. 71 Bibl. 9. (I have subsequently realised that both
the Birmingham and the Manchester sermons were delivered in German; Reines, p. 171.) 72 Bibl. 36.
73 Doc. (ii), 2. 74 Doc. (ii), 3. 75 Doc. (ii), 4, with list of 85 contributors, Bibl.
38. 76 Bibl. 10, see p. 6. 77
Kos., p. 516; Manchester Guardian, Wednesday, 12 November 1851, p. 5, col. i; Manchester Examiner and Times of same date, p. 5, col. ii; Manchester Courier & Lancashire General Advertiser, Saturday, 15
November, p. 9, col. v. 78 Doc. (iii), 1. 79 On 3 November, Kos. p. 515. 80 Bibl.37. 81 A significant word, in view of his 1845
pamphlet as cited supra, n. 43. 82 Bibl. 74. 83 Bibl. 11. 84 Bibl. 66. 85 Bibl. 41, with list of confirmands. 86 The Hebrew is lost. For an English poetic
version, see Doc. (ii), 10. 87
Cf. especially Bibl. 11, p. 4f. 88 Doc. (ii), 2, 3. 89
J.E., viii, p. 286, Gold., p. 9. 90
See, e.g., Bibl. 10, 23. 91 E.g., Bibl. 11.
92 Bibl. 24, 33, 34. Cf Bibl. 22, p. 4. 93
Golb., p. 9. 94 Manchester Great Synagogue, General Minute
Book, 1856-1880, p. 11 (General Meeting, 30 March 1856. I am grateful to Mr. J. G. Schwalbe, Secretary of the Synagogue, for this and other extracts from the minutes utilised below, and to Mr. Israel Finestein for making them available to me after drawing my attention to them). The West London Synagogue's Council Minutes, 3 November 1856 (printed by Goldb., p. 16f.), make it clear that
already by then he was committed to the idea of
founding a Reform Synagogue in Manchester. He
had himself preached in the London Reform Syna? gogue on the foregoing festival.
95 J.E., vol. iv, p. 44.
96 Orientalist and foundation member of the
teaching staff of Owens College, Manchester; Jewish Chronicle, 30 April 1886, p. 10, Goldb., p. 28f.
97 E.g., J.E., vrii, p. 286, and most recently
V. D. Lipman (ed.), Three Centuries of Anglo-Jewish History, 1961, in his own essay ('The Age of Emanci?
pation5), p. 100, n. 48. 98
Photograph in Goldb., facing p. 22. Destroyed, with the loss of its records, by enemy action on 1
June 1941. 99 Bibl. 44. 100 Bibl. 45. Reprinted by Goldb., p. 25f. 101 \/yest London Synagogue, Council Minutes,
18 November 1856, reprinted by Goldb., p. 17. 102 Doc. (ii), 9, Bibl. 14. 103 ]yjr Finestein draws my attention to a letter
in the Jewish Chronicle, 29 February 1856, signed 'Manchesterian', which, while complimenting Schiller-Szinessy on doing 'his best' to restore communal unity, adds that 'after he obtained moreh morenu [i.e., recognition as their rabbi] (from the
executives) ... he has acted against all common sense and reason in many instances'.
104 ̂ he names 0f most of the founding families of the Reform Synagogue can therefore probably be inferred from Bibl. 11, 41, and Doc. (ii), 4. Few
obviously Sephardi names are included; Horatio Montefiore, who was present at the laying of the foundation-stone and at the opening of the Syna? gogue, was there as a delegate from London (West London Synagogue Minutes, 26 March 1857 and 22 March 1858; Goldb., p. 23). On Montefiore sec Jewish Chronicle, 23 August 1867. Bibl. 15.
105 The source material for this schism (which is distinct from an earlier one referred to by C. Roth, The Rise of Provincial Jewry, 1950, p. 71) is a
correspondence, appended to the Manchester United Congregation's Minutes because of the crucial involvement of Schiller-Szinessy in the
affair, between the executives of the Manchester and Hull communities (see note 94; p. 5). The
background is furnished in a letter from Hull (11 March, also, in part, that of 17 February). A brief reference to Schiller-Szinessy's suspension from function as their Rabbi by the Manchester
Synagogue is given by the Jewish Chronicle, 14 March 1856.
106 Bibl. 42, cf. Goldb., p. 21. 107
Ibid., cf. also advertisement in Jewish Chronicle, 2 May 1856, for jAo?e?-cum-assistant Hebrew-teacher, requesting that testimonials be sent to Schiller-Szinessy as Chief Rabbi of the new
congregations of Manchester and Hull. los 'pjjg affajr seems not to have been forgotten
in a hurry. When Theodores, as secretary of the Manchester Reform Synagogue, wrote in 1858 to the London Reform Synagogue requesting that Schiller
Szinessy be certified as secretary (for marriages) to the Registrar-General, the London executive
186 Raphael Loewe
adjourned the question for further information; after which the Manchester wardens were reported as having 'postponed for the present' their intention to seek such certification. When Manchester renewed its application in 1859, there was no longer any reference to Schiller-Szinessy (still, apparently, their minister; see Doc. (ii), 11), whose name is
replaced by that of Benjamin Eger (West London
Synagogue Council of Founders' Minutes, 22 March, 24 June 1858, 10 April 1859). 109 Bibl. 43 (Sunday, 4 May 1856; although hostilities had ceased on 26 February, the peace treaty was signed in Paris on 30 March). Schiller
Szinessy presumably had an honorary 'curate' in
Hull, as it is improbable that he can himself have officiated there at 12.30 p.m. and have returned in time to preach in Manchester in the evening, it
being a Sunday. In Schiller-Szinessy's own press cutting (Doc. (v)) the words from the following sentence shown in square brackets have been cut out: '. . . hast exalted the horn of the royal host of our [sic] Gracious Majesty the Queen, [and the
might of her faithful allies] . . .', and in the phrase 'strife shall afflict no more the children of man' the last word has been struck out and India substituted.
Presumably this was for reapplication to the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), or a later retrospective confusion. Schiller-Szinessy did, however, maintain a disparaging attitude towards the French?Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe). 110 See supra, p. 153.
111 Bibl. 74. 112
Writing as late as 1883 (Qim., p. x) he re? called that the heads of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities had made unwonted common cause
against him: ]wot ,0111 wh ,Dntf 11112 *2 arrrn ,cmD0i trmm ,on nan yvih
annai dw m ,annxi r?n .onim 113 Bibl. 22, p. 5. 114 Doc. (ii), 11. Reines, pp. 171-2, asserts that he
resigned rather than countenance the closing of his synagogue on weekdays and the disregard of the second days of Festivals; but his account of S.-S.'s
Manchester Rabbinate can be shown to be, in certain other respects at least, tendentious. A notice inserted in the German periodical Sinai, edited in Baltimore (iv, 1859, p. 128), relays an appeal by 'Rev. Dr. Schiller in Manchester' for two brothers
Ehrlich to communicate with their relatives. The New York relayer (S. Adler) dates it 5 April 1859.
115 Supra, notes 95, 100, 101.
116 Bibl. 73: T and my household worship according to the Sepharadic Custom (although we avoid the Sepharadic mispronunciation; for the
Sepharadim, alas! mispronounce Hebrew as well as the Ashkenazim do, though not quite so much)'. I have in my possession a copy of the London
Sephardi daily prayer-book as translated by D. A. de Sola, 1852 edition, bearing the autograph of his daughter Henrietta. For some particulars of his
pronunciation of Hebrew see Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe, III).
117 Supra, p. 152. Reines, p. 185, makes clear that
his meticulousness in Jewish observance continued
throughout his life. 118 Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe). 119 See Shulhan 'Arukh, '0. ? 408 (? 409, 11,
treats of trees as possible locations). This story was transmitted to me by my teacher T. R. Glover (see
D.N.B., 1941-1950, p. 300), who, despite a generally negative attitude towards Jews and Judaism, was much interested in Schiller-Szinessy (he may just have seen him as a first-year undergraduate, but was certainly not in personal touch). He refers to him in his Cambridge Retrospect, Cambridge, 1943, p. 9, footnotes, alluding to the reputation of
Pumpedithans? T.B. Hullin 127a). 120 Doc. (ii), 10; cf. Bibl 41. Cf. infra, note 226. 121 The Jewish Faith. A Sermon Delivered ... 29
January 1848. London 1848. See p. 5. 122
Copied into the West London Synagogue Council of Founders' Minutes, following 18 Novem? ber 1856, and thence printed (not entirely accu?
rately) by Goldb., p. 18f. 123 Bibl. 3. 124
Ibid., part ii, p. 23. Cf. A. Freimann, Te shuboth Ha-rambam, Jerusalem, 1934, No. 97, p. 91 (a fuller text than Schiller-Szinessy's, which follows that edited in Amsterdam, 1765 (IMTi *1kd), f. 31 b). 125
E.g., Bibl. 11. 126
Cf supra, notes 99, 100, Appendix I, pp. 164f. 127 Bibl. 65 (a), (b), comparing Ibn Ezra to
Geiger: 'Whilst he, no doubt, was an observant
Jew, his views and teachings were most unorthodox'. 128 Bibl. 74: 'R. Hirsch Chajes was well known
to me. . . . He was a man of considerable genius, but his learning had no solid foundation, even as his
orthodoxy was not solid. A similar opinion of him was held by the great R. Moses Sopher. . . .'
129 Bibl. 49, Goldb., p. 22. The cup, which is now in the possession of the Cambridge Hebrew Con?
gregation, is inscribed: 'A tribute of affection from the children attending the Synagogue of British
Jews to their beloved Pastor the Revd Dr Schiller
Szinessy in gratitude for his valuable religious instruction?Manchester May 20th I860'. Cf. supra, note 87.
130 Doc. (ii), 6. 131 See J.E., s.v. (Joseph Lehman). 132 Doc. (?), 5. bpnb nbxn dtim Kin atra
?idio rrrr na ?o T?nnVa 133 Doc. (vi), 9. 134 Bibl. 15. He acknowledges (p. 9) that Jewish
apostates are, on the whole, attracted ('fortuitously') to Unitarianism rather than to Trinitarian Chris?
tianity. The Jewish Chronicle, 18 August 1865 (p. 5, col. ii), notes the prevalence of Jewish-Unitarian fraternisation in Sheffield and Nottingham. 135 Doc. (vi), 1.
136 Doc. (vi), 2, 9. 137 Doc. (vi), 9. 138 Doc. (vi), 3 (a), Appendix IV. For his
reliquiae see Doc. (vii). i*9J.E., M.Z-L.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 187 140
J.E., iv, p. 368; dates from Doc. (iii), 1
(Bensly). 141 J.E., iii, p. 89.
142 Doc. (ii), 1, giving his address as c/o Mr. W.
Brewer, Tmmpington Road, near Cambridge. His
subsequent residence, where he died, was No. 7
College Terrace (later renumbered as 111, Hills
Road; Doc. (vi), 9). 143 Doc. (ii), 1. 144 Doc. (iii), 4. Bradford, the only Reform
Congregation in England at the time besides London and Manchester, would hardly have qualified for
description as 'such an ancient congregation and its affiliated bodies', quite apart from geographical difficulties.
145 See D.N.B., Supplement i, p. 251. 146 Doc. (iii), 1. 147 See D.N.B., Supplement i, p. 171. 148 Doc. (iii) 1. 149 See Max Lenz, Geschichte der Universit?t
Berlin (1910-1918), ii, 2, p. 302f. 150
Jewish Chronicle, 14 March 1890, p. 9. In? creased to ?350 by subvention of Charles Taylor, ibid., 27 February 1885.
151 Doc. (vi), 8; not, as stated in the Jewish Chronicle, 15 Dec. 1876, honoris causa.
152 Schiller-Szinessy's degree is sometimes
erroneously stated to have been the first Jewish one at Oxford or Cambridge (e.g., Doc. (vi), 8). Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild had proceeded M.A. as a non-declarant, as also his brother Leopold (in 1870). Schiller-Szinessy's M.A. may well have been the first taken on conventional lines by a Jew. An
Anglican declaration was requisite until after the Test Act (1871) had abolished it. See H. P. Stokes, Studies in Anglo-Jewish History, 1913, p. 237. Non declarants lacked the right to vote in the Senate.
153 D.N.B., 1922-1930, p. 740.
154 Doc. (iii), 2. 155 Nomen viri nostis omnes; quod, quamquam
nonnullis nostrum quo potissimum sono exprimatur obscurum est, darum tarnen et illustre aliquid significare accepimus; laetamur saltern hunc . . . in hac Academia Ulis esse ascriptum quibus 6hinc lucem? diffundere est
propositum. 156 Doc. (vi), 8. 157 Bibl. 16. 158 I have been unable to find written reference
to this other than an allusive and uncircumstantial one in the preface mentioned in the next note: but I fancy it concerns the gift of MSS. bought from the widow of the Dutch Orientalist Erpenius by the
Duke of Buckingham, who was Chancellor of Cam?
bridge. Buckingham was murdered in 1628 and the MSS. were presented to the University after his death by his Duchess.
159 In the preface (1927) to his own handlist
(still unpublished in 1968) of the Cambridge Hebrew MSS.; it is itself included in MS. Or. 1772.
160 D.N.B., 1912-1921, p. 595.
161 Bibl. 17. 162 Bibl. 20.
163 Bibl. 24. 164 Listed in Qim., p. xiif, notes 3,9,10,11,12,14. 165
Bologna, 1477. 166 The text followed was that of MS. Cam?
bridge Add. 465. An interleaved copy of Qimhi's commentary to Psalms (ed. Spira, Zhitomir, 1867) now in my possession bears corrections in Schiller
Szinessy's hand for the first few leaves only, with a few text-critical annotations, arid a draft
title-page (embodying the name of Lowe as co
editor) differing from that printed (see Qim., p. viii). 167
J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, II, iv, p. 219.
168 Qim., p. viii. For Lowe's complementary
account see Bibl. 79 (Jewish World). 169 See infra, p. 162. 170
D.M.B., s.v, p. 200. Cf. note 217. 171 Bibl. 27.
172J.E., s.v., x, p. 443. 173 Bibl. 28. 174 Bibl. 29. 175
Thus, in Bibl. 74 he could permit himself to write: 'My "autobiography" [sc. in an earlier
letter] was not the outcome of personal vanity. . . . Had it been a point of personal vanity I should have mentioned my secular studies rather than my religious ones, seeing that there are few people either in England or abroad who have had such a brilliant academical career as myself. . . .'
176 Bibl. 72. 177 Bibl. 79. 178 I have this on the testimony of my father,
Herbert Loewe, who matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1901 and was one of Schechter's last pupils there.
179 This anecdote, which reached me by oral
tradition, conceivably refers to some other con?
troversialist?my memory is uncertain. It is, how? ever, not out of character for Schiller-Szinessy; cf. Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe, especially iii, towards the
end). 180 Obituary of Charles Taylor, Jewish Chronicle
21 August 1908, cf. also W. H. Lowe (Bibl. 79). 181 Bibl. 23. He dated the Targum of the passage as c. 30-10 b.c.e., and understood the prophecy itself as referring to Israel as represented by its
pious core and culminating in the Messiah. He conceded the validity, for Christians, of the messiah
ship of Jesus, and could speak (p. 31) of 'our and
your Saint Paul, the Jew and the Christian'. When
Schiller-Szinessy gratuitously obtruded this
pamphlet on Jewish notice in the press (Bibl. 55) in support of his contention, alleged by him to have
Maimonides' support, that the 'Gentile Saviour
[hood]' of Jesus is an actual one, he stimulated a
sharp counter-attack, charging him inter alia with
obsequiousness, from Isaac S. Meisels. 182 MSS. Or. 305, 406. 183
D.N.B., 1901-1911, i, p. 427. 184 MSS. Or. 368, 401, 402, 403. One of these is
dated 17 February 1880.
188 Raphael Loewe 185 Transactions of the ninth International
Congress of Orientalists, London, 1893, vol. i, p. 391f.
186 D.N.B., 1901-1911, iii, p. 480. Schiller
Szinessy paid tribute to him in Qim., p. viiif.
(translated into English by G.A.Y[ates] in The
Eagle (Magazine of St. John's College, Cambridge), xlvi, No. 206, 1931, p. 122). 187 See note 167. Doc. (vi), 9, emphasises the bond that existed between teacher and pupil, as do Lowe's own reminiscences (Bibl. 79). 188
Cf. Bibl. 25. 189
Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, II, vi, p. 65. 190
Chagigah. Cambridge, 1891. Streane pays grateful tribute to Schiller-Szinessy in the preface (p. xvi) and declares his book the outcome of
Schiller-Szinessy's lectures. 191
D.N.B., 1922-1930, p. 351. 192 Included in this group is Israel Hersch, of
Caius, subsequently master of the Jewish house at the Perse School. See Jewish Chronicle, 29 August 1947.
193 J.E., viii, p. 69, Jewish Chronicle, 3 May 1940,
Goldb., p. 70. See the preface (Hebrew) to Lewis's Tar gum on Isaiah, i-v, London, 1889.
194 Qim., p. xii.
195 J. J. S. Perowne, of Worcester (D.M.B.
1901-1911, iii, p. 108) and J. B. Lightfoot, of Durham (ibid., xxxiii, p. 238). Lightfoot may possibly not have been his pupil in the strict sense, but Schiller-Szinessy was his colleague at Cambridge and enjoyed his respect and friendship; see Doc. (iii), 2, end, Bibl. 54.
196 A. F. Kirkpatrick, of Ely; see Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, II, iv, p. 56. Kirkpatrick was probably, but not certainly, his pupil; see Doc. (vi), 7 and (i), 10(d). 197
George Phillips, of Queens' (see note 170), Charles Taylor, of St. John's (see note 186); Kirk? patrick had been Master of Selwyn before going to Ely as Dean.
198 A. Lukyn Williams, Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney, N.S.W. (Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, II, vi, p. 484). Williams died in 1943, and I recollect talking to him about Schiller-Szinessy. In his Adversus Judaeos (1935), p. 249, n. 4, Williams refers to him as 'my dear and revered teacher'.
199 J. B. Lightfoot (see note 195) and J. R.
Lumby (D.N.B. Supplement iii, p. Ill), both
Lady Margaret Professors of Divinity; R. L. Bensly, Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (ibid., Supple? ment i, p. 171), and A. A. Bevan, who held the same chair (ibid., 1931-1940, p. 74); E. B. Cowell, Professor of Sanskrit (see note 183); A. F. Kirk?
patrick (see note 196) and R. H. Kennett (D.N.B. 1931-1940, p. 505), Regius Professors of Hebrew.
200 See note 160. 201
Qim., p. xii, refers, in addition to names mentioned in the body of this article, to E. G.
King, A. T. Chapman, C. R. Bingham, D. G.
Davies, A. T. Warren, J. McKinney, A. E. Budge
(i.e., E. A. Wallis Budge, of the British Museum, see
D.N.B., 1931-1940, p. 121; for the remainder, Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses). 202 Bibl. 79, Jewish World (obituary). Cf. Reines, p. 168.
203 Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe). 204 A. S. F. Gow, Letters from Cambridge (1939-44), London, 1945, p. 105, records this story, which is still current among Jewish members of Cambridge
who graduated before approximately 1925. 205 Doc. (i), 10(d). 206 Bibl. 22, 53, Doc. (iii), 5. 207 D.N.B. 1912-1921, p. 120, J.E., iv, p. 146. 208 Bibl. 22. 209 Doc. (vi), 4, 7. The Hebrew date was 19
Adar; see Appendix IV(b). 210 See Appendix IV(a), p. 181. 211 The inscription on his grave is given in
Appendix IV. Part of his library was acquired by Montefiore College, in Ramsgate, the books from which are now deposited in the Mocatta Library at
University College, London. See D. A. J. Cardozo and P. Goodman, Think and Thank, 1933, p. 165.
212 Bibl. 79. 213 He is stated (ibid., I) to have been a lifelong
teetotaler, not on grounds of conviction but because he felt no need for alcoholic stimulants; so much so that when making a ritual blessing over wine, he
would in fact pass it to another to consume on his behalf without tasting it.
214 Ibid., III.
215 He had been naturalised in 1854; Doc.
(Hi), 1 216 'pkg conclusion, as transmitted severally to Professor Norman Bentwich and myself, runs: 'for then I should have cursed him, and he would have died'. Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe, III, near end) and
supra, note 179, indicate that Schiller-Szinessy took such things seriously. An incident in his own family's history, of which he learned as a child, may explain why; Reines, p. 164, note.
211 Cf. note 181. In the dedication to Qim.
(see page 161) he refers to himself as ̂12111 iTV!S7T
and to Phillips as TP f?m T ,Ky"7S Ta 1T\
218 In Qim. (p. xiii, n. 7) Schiller-Szinessy writes in warmly appreciative terms of C. D.
Ginsburg, the Massoretic scholar (D.N.B., 1912
1921, p. 215, J.E., v, p. 669). After remarking on the coincidence that Ginsburg, like Bomberg's
Massoretic editor in the sixteenth century, Jacob ben Hayyim of Tunis, was a convert to Christianity, he concludes with the formula tiVk nr? mat naitt1? OnpHS. For a cordial letter from Ginsburg to Schiller-Szinessy see Doc. (iii), 3.
219 Cf. Bibl. 55, and occasional passing references
to him in more recent publications. 220 Cf. notes 119, 204; H. P. Stokes, Studies in
Anglo-Jewish History, 1913, p. 239, writes: 'This scholar created a school and a legend, and quaint stories are still current about him'.
Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, 1820-1890 189 221 Bibl. 79 (W. H. Lowe, III). 222
Cf. T. B. Sotah 10a, infra, on Gen. xxi, 33
(Resh Laqish), Gen. R. ? 39, 14, on Gen. xii, 5, etc. 223 See supra, note 120. 224 See supra, note 116. 225 Bibl. 76. 226
J.E., ix, p. 684. 227 Adler had, apparently, entered into some
formal agreement by which S.-S. should enjoy the title of Local Rabbi and morenu as its synagogal counterpart (having at first recognised his position,
neologistically, as menahalenu ('our guide')), but he failed to secure (or more probably interdicted) such
synagogal courtesy towards him in London ( Jewish Chronicle, 29 October, 12, 26 November, 1852). In
1856, after S.-S.'s dismissal by the original Man? chester congregation, Adler publicly denied his continued rabbinical jurisdiction over divorces,
Kashruth, etc. (Jewish Chronicle, 27 June, 1856, p. 640). I am grateful to Mr. J. M. Shaftesley for these references.
228 Ethics of the Fathers, i, 1.