Franz Rosenzweig

Franz Rosenzweig's story, like Gershom Scholem and Franz Kafka, was that of a return to the very core of Jewish life from the assimilated periphery. Rosenzweig was born into a wealthy, acculturated family in Kassel, Germany. After studying medicine, his scholastic interest shifted toward philosophy and his dissertation later became a two-volume study entitled Hegel und der Staat [Hegel and the State] (1920), which is displayed in the Bezalel Bookcase. It was at this stage in his life where he was ready to abandon Judaism and convert to Christianity, but only on one condition. Like the earliest Christians, he would enter as a Jew, not a pagan. In 1913, as a last resort, he attended Kol Nidre services. In that orthodox synagogue, he had a religious epiphany that sent him squarely back to Judaism.

As a solider in the trenches during World War I, Rosenzweig composed his seminal work, Der Stern der Erloesung [The Star of Redemption] (1921). Afterwards he moved to Frankfurt, where he created a "particular Jewish sphere" and remained the rest of his life. Beyond the influence of his published scholarly works, his legacy is undoubtedly intertwined with his founding of the Freies Judisches Lehrhaus, an adult academy dedicated to Jewish studies of the highest intellectual standing.

The Freies Judisches Lehrhaus ["Free Jewish House of Learning"] opened in August 1920. Over its six-year existence, it became the most important Jewish institution for adult education in Weimar Germany. The Lehrhaus renewed a sense of community among German Jews, which was the first step toward a Jewish cultural renaissance. For Rosenzweig, Jewish learning constituted the only means for reorganizing and revitalizing Jewish life. The only law at the Lehrhaus was, "Nulle dies sine linea hebraica" ["No day without a Hebrew line"]. This decision reflected the preeminence of Hebrew, which was taught along with the Bible and Talmud as the core of the program.

The Lehrhaus, and the other institutes of adult Jewish education, offered systematic dissemination of Jewish knowledge to provide answers to German Jews who wished to become better acquainted with their roots. In this effort, Rosenzweig initiated a profound change in the approach to Jewish adult education by casting a wider net and adopting an interdisciplinary approach. He selected instructors from many different disciplines, including the emerging social sciences, literature, Kabbalah, representatives of Liberal and Orthodox Judaism and non-Jews who offered the Christian perspective on the Old Testament. The instructors, who read like a "Who's Who" list, include Gershom Scholem, SY Agnon, Martin Buber, Erich Fromm, Leo Baeck, A.J. Heschel, and Bertha Pappenheim, the head of the German Jewish women's movement.

The Lehrhaus was to become the center of Jewish life in Frankfurt and serve as a model for other Jewish institutes of higher learning. It produced a new type of Jew who proudly identified with the positive content of Judaism, one who did not reduce his Jewish identity simply to survival in the face of anti-Semitism and the struggle for equality.

Throughout Rosenzweig's contributions to Jewish life, his wife, Edith Hahn, was by his side. On their honeymoon in 1920, he translated Birkat Ha Mazon [Grace After Meals] from Hebrew into German, seen on the left and inscribed by Rosenzweig. Just two years later he was diagnosed with a form of progressive paralysis. Although he eventually lost all movement and power of speech, he kept producing eminent works of scholarship. During this time, the role of his wife Edith cannot be overstated. When he was still able to write on his typewriter, she made all the necessary corrections and managed conversations between him and his numerous visitors. She also took over the teaching of Hebrew at the Lehrhaus. Close to the end of his life, he was only able to move his eyes. Edith would go through the alphabet and he would blink at the desired character and then she would be able to guess the word. Through this slow process, they constructed words and paragraphs.

In 1925, Martin Buber was asked to begin work on a new translation of the Hebrew Bible into German. He agreed on the sole condition that it be done in collaboration with Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig agreed, believing that his death was not yet imminent. Before his death in 1929, they were able to finalize volumes I through X (Genesis- Isaiah). Buber translated volumes XI-XV (Jeremiah-Proverbs) alone. This complete translation of the Hebrew Bible, Die Schrift [The Scripture (the Old Testament)], is one of the most significant translations of the Bible translations in modern times. An original addition of this great work can be seen in the Bezalel Bookcase.

Franz Rosenzweig personified the conflict of many young intelligent Jews, that between the pull of modernity and the practice of traditional Jewish ideals. More than any other German Jew, Rosenzweig helped to build a distinct, modern Jewish culture, while remaining deeply rooted in his German surrounding.