Akiba Israel Wertheimer
| Akiba Israel Wertheimer | |
|---|---|
| Chief Rabbi | |
| Successor | Jacob Ettlinger |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Jacob Viktor Wertheimer |
| Born |
1778 Wrocław, Kingdom of Prussia (modern-day Poland) |
| Died |
20 May 1836, age about 57 Altona, Kingdom of Denmark (modern-day Germany) |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Father | Avigdor Wertheimer |
Akiba Israel Wertheimer (1778-1835) was the first Chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein.:[1]
Life
Akiba (or Ekiva or Akiva) Wertheimer was born in about 1778 in Wrocław, Poland, the son of Torah scholar Avigdor Wertheimer (?-1826) who came from the Prussian partition area of Poland. He went to the Talmudic academy of Akiba Eger, the most important in Mirosławiec.
He came with his parents to Altona, now a suburb of Hamburg but which was then an independent city under the administration of the Danish monarchy, where in 1805 he was a Melamed (teacher of Torah and Talmud school). In 1806 he was appointed Rabbi in Moisling and Lübeck. Due to the expulsion of the Jews in Lübeck and poverty in the Moisling Jewish community, in 1816 he moved to Altona where he remained until his death.
In 1819 he opposed the Hamburg-based reformers of Judaism and banned the use of the Jewish prayer book in the German language.[2]
In 1823 he was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein. For the Altona rabbinate, he was successor to Rabbi Mendel Hirsch Frankfurter,[3] the grandfather of Samson Raphael Hirsch.
Akiba Wertheimer died in Altona in 1835, and was succeeded as Chief Rabbi by Jacob Ettlinger.
Family
Wertheimer had four daughters and four sons
- Betty Wertheimer
- Miriam Wertheimer
- Hanna Wertheimer
- Jakob Wertheimer (1799–??) ∞ Renette Levy
- Abraham Hirsch Wertheimer
- Meir (Meyer) Wertheimer who emigrated to Birmingham, England, where he changed his name to Martin Wertheimer and became a jeweller
- Moses Wertheimer (1807–1887) – Torah scholar and father of German philosopher Constantin Brunner (born Aryeh Yehuda Wertheimer) ∞ Rachel (Rieke) Levy
- Jette Wertheimer (1801–1890) ∞ Isaac Joseph Michael (1795–??)
Literature
- Abraham Suhl: Zu Constantin Brunners Biographie. In: Der Constantin Brunner Gedanke. (To Constantin Brunner's biography. In The Constantin Brunner thought.) Edited by Dr. R. Pinner u. Dr. A. Suhl, Year 1, Issue 3/4, August 1955 pp 21–33