Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary


The Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary was founded in Berlin on 22 October 1873 by Rabbi Dr. Israel Hildesheimer for the training of rabbis in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism.

History

In accepting the call as the first rabbi of the new Berlin Orthodox congregation, the Israelite Synagogal Congregation of Adass Yisroel in 1869, Israel Hildesheimer stipulated that he should be allowed to continue his activities as rabbinical teacher just as he had done at his former rabbinical office in Eisenstadt, Hungary. After delivering lectures which attracted a great many pupils, he addressed ten prominent persons in different parts of Germany in 1872, and explained to them the necessity of organizing an Orthodox rabbinical seminary at Berlin. These men at once took up the subject, and a central committee was formed, which included Rabbi Joseph Altmann of Karlsruhe, Rabbi Dr. Auerbach of Halberstadt, Chief Rabbi Dr. Solomon Cohn of Schwerin, Aron Hirsch Heymann of Berlin, Gustav Hirsch of Berlin, Sally Lewisohn of Hamburg, and Emanuel Schwarzschild of Frankfurt am Main.
The seminary was dedicated on 22 October 1873. At the opening of the institution the faculty included the rector, Dr. Israel Hildesheimer, and two lecturers, Dr. David Hoffmann and Dr. Abraham Berliner. In 1874, Dr. Jacob Barth, subsequently son-in-law of Hildesheimer, was added to the faculty as lecturer in Hebrew, exegesis of the Bible with the exception of the Pentateuch, and religious philosophy. Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer, son of the founder and a graduate of the seminary, was appointed in 1882 lecturer in Jewish history and the geography of Palestine. When Dr. Solomon Cohn removed to Berlin from Schwerin in 1876 he took charge of the courses in theoretic and practical homiletics, continuing them until he went to Breslau in 1894.
By this time, the attendance had greatly increased, and owing to the large number of pupils at the institution it became necessary to employ a new teacher; accordingly in 1895 Dr. J. Wohlgemuth, a former pupil, was appointed. After the death of the founder, Dr. Hildesheimer, on 12 June 1899, Rabbi David Z. Hoffmann was elected rector of the institution. During his rectorate the seminary, originally located on Gipsstraße 12a, moved into Adass Jisroel's new edifice on then Artilleriestraße 31–32 in 1904.
Hoffmann was succeeded by Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan, a graduate of the Slabodka yeshiva and a brilliant talmudist. Kaplan died young however after only four years as rector. He was succeeded by Rabbi Jechiel Jakob Weinberg, the last rector of the Seminary. The Seminary was closed by the Nazis in 1938.

Description

The seminary was divided into an upper and a lower division.
Pupils in the lower division followed a two-year course, being promoted to the upper division on passing an examination; but pupils who had qualified in the principal branches were immediately admitted to the upper division.
The course in this division lasted four years.
The conditions for admission to the seminary included the following:
the candidate had to prove by examination that he was able to understand a moderately difficult Talmudic text, Rashi and the Tosafot;
as regards the secular sciences he had either to have a certificate of graduation from a classical Gymnasium or to be able to show that he was fitted for the graduating class of such a Gymnasium.
At the end of the course, pupils who left the institution as qualified rabbis had passed special examinations showing that aside from their attainments in the various branches of Jewish learning they were sufficiently familiar with the ritual codices to decide correctly on ritual and religio-legal questions. See Yeshiva#Jewish law, Rabbi#Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Judaism and Halakha#Codes of Jewish law.

Reestablishment

In 2009, the Seminary was reestablished with the blessing of Professor Dr. Meir Hildesheimer and Rabbi Azaria Hildesheimer, great grandsons of the founder, under the name Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin. The contemporary Seminary is funded by the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, and occupies premises at the Skoblo Synagogue and Education Center in Berlin Mitte. Rector of the institution is Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, formerly the Rosh Beth Din of the London Beth Din.
The Seminary has ordained eight rabbis since 2009, who serve as community rabbis in Freiburg im Breisgau, Köln, Leipzig, Osnabrück, Potsdam, and as educators in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin.
The course of study is four years, and is divided into two major and one minor areas of study.
The major areas are classical Talmud and Halacha, and a state accredited degree in social work offered by the University of Applied Sciences - Erfurt.
The minor area includes professional qualifications such as pastoral care, bereavement counseling, and public speaking, as well as intellectual history and constitutional law.
In 2013, the Seminary established an affiliate institution in partnership with the Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig, the Institute for Traditional Liturgy, to train both rabbinical students and communal lay leaders to lead prayer services in accordance with halachic practice and normative ritual tradition.

Rectors

Among the Seminary's graduates were: