Abraham Geiger
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Rabbi Abraham Geiger אַבְרָהָם גִייגְר |
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| Position | Rabbi in Wrocław |
| Began | 1840 |
| Ended | 1863 |
| Other | Rabbi of Frankfurt am Main (1863–1870) Rabbi of Central Berlin (1870–1874) |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | אַבְרָהָם גִייגְר |
| Born |
24 May 1810 Frankfurt, Grand Duchy of Frankfurt |
| Died | 23 October 1874 (aged 64) Berlin, Prussia, Germany |
| Father | Aaron Yechiel Michel |
| Occupation | Head of the Highschool for Jewish Studies in Berlin (1872–74) Editor of Jüdische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben (1862–74) |
| Alma mater |
Heidelberg University University of Bonn |
Abraham Geiger (24 May 1810 – 23 October 1874) was a German rabbi and scholar, considered the founding father of Reform Judaism. Emphasizing its constant development along history and universalist traits, Geiger sought to reformulate received forms and design what he regarded as a religion compliant with modern times.
As a child, Geiger started doubting the traditional understanding of Judaism when his studies in classical history seemed to contradict the biblical claims of divine authority. At the age of seventeen, he began writing his first work, a comparison between the legal style of the Mishnah and Biblical and Talmudic law. He also worked on a dictionary of Mishnaic (Rabbinic) Hebrew.
Geiger's friends provided him with financial assistance which enabled him to attend the University in Heidelberg, to the great disappointment of his family. His main focus was centered on the areas of philology, Syriac, Hebrew, and classics, but he also attended lectures in Old Testament, philosophy, and archaeology. After one semester, he transferred to the University of Bonn, where he studied at the same time as Samson Raphael Hirsch. Hirsch initially formed a friendship with Geiger, and with him organized a society of Jewish students for the stated purpose of practicing homiletics, but with the deeper intention of bringing them closer to Jewish values. It was to this society that Geiger preached his first sermon (January 2, 1830). In later years he and Hirsch became bitter opponents as the leaders of two opposing Jewish movements.
At Bonn, Geiger began an intense study of Arabic and the Koran, winning a prize for his essay, written originally in Latin, and later published in German under the title "Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen?" ("What did Mohammed take from Judaism?"). The essay earned Geiger a doctorate at the University of Marburg. It demonstrated that large parts of the Koran were taken from, or based on, rabbinic literature. (On this see Origin and development of the Qur'an).
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