Nehemiah Brüll

Nehemiah Brüll (March 16, 1843 in Rousínov, Moravia – February 5, 1891 in Frankfurt am Main) was a rabbi and versatile scholar.

Brüll received his rabbinic-Talmudic education from his father, Jakob Brüll , who combined wide Talmudic knowledge with acute historical perception. He then studied classical and Oriental languages and history at the University of Vienna, having at the same time a good opportunity to continue his Talmudic studies at the Vienna bet ha-Midrash, then under the direction of men like I. H. Weiss, M. Friedmann, and Adolf Jellinek. Here, too, Brüll, the son of a conservative rabbi, and the grandson of the arch-Orthodox chief rabbi of Moravia, Nahum Trebitsch, developed into a decided Reformer and a disciple of Abraham Geiger.

Brüll was called as rabbi to Bzenec, one of the Reform communities of Moravia, an office that be resigned in 1870 in order to take charge of the rabbinate of Frankfurt am Main. He owed this appointment to Geiger, who drew the attention of his native community to the young Moravian rabbi. Brüll remained with this ancient community until his death, although his position was fraught with disappointment.

As a result of the movement inaugurated by Samson Raphael Hirsch at Frankfurt, even the circles that were not Orthodox tended gradually toward the conservative party. Brüll cared as little for compromise as did his opponent Hirsch. An enthusiastic representative of the Reform movement, for religious as well as scientific reasons, he was decidedly opposed to any attempts at reconciliation between Reform and Orthodoxy.

Yet he was not the man to influence the masses: his sermons, less effective from the pulpit, had to be read in order to be appreciated. Not until he saw that all his efforts were in vain, and he had been personally attacked, did he retire to devote himself to his studies, greatly to the honor and advantage of Jewish learning.

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