Eugen Mittwoch
| Eugen Mittwoch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 4, 1876 Schrimm, Province of Posen, Prussia, Germany (now Śrem in Poland) |
| Died | November 8, 1942 (aged 65) London, England, UK |
| Nationality | Prussian, German, British |
| Education | Ph. D., Islamic Studies |
| Alma mater | Berlin University, Rabbinical Seminary of Berlin |
| Occupation | Jewish Theologist, Rabbi, Orientalist |
| Employer | Berlin University, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee |
Eugen Mittwoch (December 4, 1876 - November 8, 1942) was the founder of Modern Islamic Studies in Germany, and at the same time an eminent Jewish scholar (He was a doctoral advisor and rabbi of Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Coming from an old Orthodox Jewish family, Mittwoch was born in Schrimm, Prussian Province of Posen, Imperial Germany (now Srem in Poland). He initially wanted to become a Rabbi. During his studies in Berlin he discovered Islamic studies and did his doctorate with Eduard Sachau.
During World War I, Mittwoch was the head of the German Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient from 1916 until 1918. After the agency initially employed people who advocated Jihad and violence against the Western powers, Mittwoch hired more liberal and cosmopolitan writers and intellectuals for the Nachrichtenstelle such as the Swiss Max Rudolf Kaufmann (Mittwoch hired him for the Nachrichtenstelle, after he arrested, briefly imprisoned and deported from Turkey because Turkish intelligence had found letter of Kaufmann criticizing German-Turkish militarism and jingoism), the Social Democrat Friedrich Schrader and the Zionist Nahum Goldmann. Schrader and Kaufmann were correspondents for the Jewish-owned liberal Frankfurter Zeitung and close associates of Paul Weitz, one of the sharpest critics of German collaboration with the genocidal politics of the Young Turks.
...
Wikipedia