קהילת יהודי טיבינגן

Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (1921-1994), historian, born in Tuebingen, Germany, the son of classical historian Victor Ehrenberg. He fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and immigrated to England . From 1949 he taught at Cambridge University, where he was appointed professor of constitutional history in 1967. His specialty was the Tudor period of English history on which his interpretation brought about a major reassessment. His works include The Tudor Revolution in Government and England under the Tudors. He edited several volumes of the New Cambridge Modern History.

Mor Ballagi (born Moritz Bloch) (1815-1891), philologist and Christian theologian, born in Inocz, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at the well known טeshivot at Nagyvarad (now Oradea, in Romania), and Papa, Hungary. While working as a teacher in Moor and Surany, he studied classical and modern languages and also mathematics. His religion being an obstacle to the obtaining of a diploma at the University of Budapest, he moved to Paris in 1839, where he took up Oriental studies. Jozsef Eotvoes, a leading Hungarian writer and statesman, was much impressed by Ballagi's pamphlet A zsidokrol (About the Jews), in which he advocated the emancipation of Hungarian Jewry, and called upon him to return to Hungary, which he did in 1840. Ballagi began a Hungarian translation of the Bible, of which, however, only the Pentateuch and Joshua appeared (Budapest, 1840-1843). Its language and his commentaries were widely praised in Hungary. In recognition he was made a member of the Hungarian Academy of Science. In 1841 he translated the Hebrew prayer book into Hungarian.

He wrote several pamphlets in favour of Hungarian independence and succeeded in enlisting the support of leading politician Count Stephen Szechenyi, who had championed the modernization of Hungarian economic, social, and intellectual life and was the leader of the moderate liberal group in the Hungarian diet, for the establishment of a Hungarian rabbinical seminary. In 1842 Ballagi went to Tuebingen, Germany, where he converted to Protestantism (1843) although he remained sympathetic to Judaism. The following year he became a lecturer at the Lyceum in Szarvas (Hungary) and in 1851 he was made professor there.

During the War of Liberation, as the revolution of 1848 was known in Hungary, he was secretary to General Goergey and subsequently was assigned to the War Department. Later he also was made professor at the Protestant Theological Institute of Pest. In 1959 he produced a Hungarian dictionary and a collection of Hungarian proverbs. He also published also a textbook of the Hebrew language (1872) and wrote a number of books on Christian subjects. He wrote in both Hungarian and German. Ballagi died in Budapest.

Otto Liebman (1840-1912), philosopher, born in Lwówek Śląski, Poland (then Loewenberg in Silesia, Germany). He was appointed lecturer in Tuebingen in 1865. In 1870-1871 he was in the Prussian army at the siege of Paris and published a patriotic memoir of the occasion. From 1872-1882 Liebman was professor at Strasbourg and then in Jena. He was one of the founders of the Neo-Kantian school of philosophy. and wrote many books on philosophy as well as a volume of poetry.

מנדלסון, ארנולד (1855- 1933), מלחין. נולד בראטיבור, גרמניה (היום רציבוז', פולין), כבנו של בן-דוד של פליקס מנדלסון. למד באוניברסיטה של טיבינגן ואחר כך בבית הספר הגבוה למוסיקה בברלין. בהמשך שימש מתרגל בבילפלד (1885-1883), מורה בקונסרבטוריון בקלן (1890-1885), ומ-1891, מנהל המוסיקה הכנסייתית בדארמשטט. ב-1912 מונה פרופסור בקונסרבטוריון הוך בפרנקפורט. שם לימד, בין היתר, את פאול הינדמית.
באמצעות יצירותיו למקהלה (כולל ברכות, Die Seligpreisungen, לסולן, למקהלה ולרביעיית כלי-קשת, 1933), תרם מנדלסון לחידוש מוסיקת הכנסייה הפרוטסטנטית. הלחין גם אופרות (כולל Der Bärenhäuter, 1900), שירים, מוסיקה לתזמורת ומוסיקה קאמרית. ערך את האורטוריות של שיץ ואחדים מן המדריגלים של מונטוורדי וכתב את "אלהים, העולם והאמנות" (1949). נפטר בדארמשטט, גרמניה.

Leopold (Judah Loeb) Dukes (Dukesz)(1810-1891), historian of Jewish literature, born in Pressburg (then also Pozsony, Hungary, part of the Austrian Empire, now Bratislava, Slovakia). Dukes studied at yeshivot in Pressburg and Wuerzburg, Germany. He was a student of Rabbi Moses Sofer and of Rabbi Hayim Joseph Pollak; the latter introduced him to secular study. Dukes visited most of the important libraries in central Europe - Munich,Tübingen, Hanover, Hamburg, Paris, Leipzig, Oxford - researching Jewish manuscripts and uncovering many hitherto unknown medieval works. Dukes lived for 20 years in London, England, researching at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and at the British Museum in London. His research covered haggadic literature, Bible exegesis, medieval Jewish literature, Hebrew grammar, the Masoretic text, and Talmudic maxims. Some of this research was considered to lack depth but was complementary to the works of Leopold Zunz and A.J. Rappaport in the same field. Dukes' translation of Rashi's Torah commentary into German was published with Sofer's recommendation in Prague in the years 1833-38. He published works on medieval Jewish poetry and the language of the Mishna, on the importance of Rashi and also a study of Jewish philosophy during the 10th century. Dukes was especially interested in the works of the medieval Spanish poets Solomon ibn Gabirol and of Moses ibn Ezra.

Many of his minor works were published in Jewish professional papers, mainly in the Orient and Ben Chananja, the latter edited by Lipot Loew. His independent works, which were equally appreciated by Jews and Christians, include Ehrensaaulen und Denksteine zu einem kuenftigen Pantheon hebraaischer Dichter (1837); Raschi ueber den Pentateuch in deutscher Uebersetzung (1838); Rabbinische Blumenlese (1844); Die Sprache der Mischna (1846); Die aaltesten hebraischen Exegeten, Grammatiker und Lexikographen (1844); Philosophisches aus dem zehnten Jahrhundert (1868). His autobiography appears in AZDJ, 56 (1892).

David Tsevi Hoffmann (1873-1921), scholar, born in Vrbove, Slovakia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied at Hungarian yeshivot and at the Hildesheimer Seminary in Eisenstadt. He went on to universities in Vienna, Berlin and Tuebingen and when Ezriel Hildesheimer founded the Berlin Rabbinical School he invited Hoffmann to teach there. In 1899 Hoffmann succeeded Hilderheimer as rector (i.e. principal). In his latter years he was regarded as the supreme authority on halakha by German Orthodox Jews and his responsa is collected in three volumes. They are characterized by leniency although he was unbending in his opposition to Reform. His biblical studies rejected biblical criticism but he accepted a critical approach to the Talmud as long as this does not conflict with halakha. He wrote many seminal books and hundreds of scholarly articles.

Claude Lanzmann (1925-2018), film director, author and editor, born in Bois-Colombes, France, famous as director of Shoah, a landmark documentary about the Holocaust. He attended Lycee Condorcet in Paris. After the German occupation of France during WW2, his family sought refuge in the Auvergne region in Central France. Following his father, he joined the French Resistance taking active part in several attacks against the German Army. He studied philosophy at the University of Tubingen in Germany after 1947 and worked as a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin during 1948-1949 and as manager of the newly founded French cultural center in Berlin.

After his return to France, he joined Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and served as editor of Les Temps modernes, a magazine founded by Sartre. During the 1950s and the 1960s he took part in left-wing activities, including a visit to North Korea in 1958 and the opposition to the Algerian war.

After 1970 he turned to the world of cinematography. In 1972 he directed Pourquoi Israel, a documentary about his own Jewish identity. It was followed by eleven years of work on Shoah (1985), a nine hours long landmark documentary that helped awaken the public attention to the horrors of the Holocaust. It was first screened in Paris in April 1985 in the presence of the French President François Mitterrand. Lanzmann continued to direct documentaries about the Holocaust, including Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m (2001) an account of the prisoners uprising at the Nazi extermination camp of Sobibor in 1943, Le Rapport Karski (“The Karski Report”, 2010), and Le Dernier des injustes (“The last of the Unjust”, 2013) about rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein, President of the Judenrat in Theresienstadt, who was wrongly accused of collaborating with the Nazis.

His is the author of L'Oiseau n'a plus d'ailes… Les lettres de Peter Schwiefert (1974), Shoah (1985), Au sujet de Shoah (1990), Un vivant qui passe : Auschwitz 1943 - Theresienstadt 1944 (1997), Le Lièvre de Patagonie (2009), La Tombe du divin plongeur (2012), and Le Dernier des injustes (2015). Lanzmann was named Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur (2011).

Mark Aurel Stein (1862-1943), archeologist, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was educated in his native city and in Dresden, Germany, then in Vienna, Tuebingen and England. In 1888 Stein became principal of the Oriental College in Lahore and registrar of Punjab University. During the period that he held these posts – until 1899 – he also carried out antiquarian researches in several Indian states. In 1900 and 1901 Stein directed archeological expeditions in Chinese Turkestan for the Indian government. From then on Stein was almost continuously engaged in special archeological surveys and expeditions, working in Central Asia, West China, Persia (Iran), Iraq and Transjordan. From 1910 to 1929 he was an officer of the Indian Archeological Survey. In 1930 he led expeditions to Baluchistan and Iran between 1927 and 1936 (to examine the traces of the Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilizations); journeys to establish the marching routes and battlefields of Alexander the Great; a reexamination of the Roman-Parthian frontier to fix the western terminus of the silk trade. As a result of the Hungarian Geological Survey of Tun-huang in 1897, Stein made his greatest discoveries there of ancient Chinese murals and paintings and some Chinese manuscripts from the fifth to tenth centuries as well as the oldest specimen of a printed book (dated 868 CE). Stein also explored the Graeco-Budhist monuments of Northwest India and intended to explore Afghanistan, but died a few days after arrival.

Stein was awarded numerous medals for his accomplishments, including the Royal Geographical Society’s gold medal (1909), the Royal Asiatic Society’s gold medal (1932), the Huxley medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1934( and the gold medal of the Society of Antiquaries (1935). Stein was given an honorary doctorate by both Oxford and Cambridge, as well as by Punjab University, and was knighted in 1912.   

Stern’s books include Rins of Khotan (1903), Ancient Khotan  (1907), Serindia (1912), Innermost Asia (1928), The Thousand Buddhas (1921) An Archeological Tour in Gedrosia (1931), in Archeological Reconnaissances in Northwestern India and Southeastern Iran (1937); On Old Routes of Western Iran (1940); On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks (with a biography by J. Mirsky, 1964).

עיר המבצר טרזין (בגרמנית - טרזיינשטאדט) שבצפון-מערב צ'כיה הוקמה בימי הקיסר יוזף השני ונקראה על שם אמו מריה-תרזה. ב-1941 תכננו הנאצים לרכז בטרזין את רוב יהודי הפרוטקטוראט של בוהמיה ומורביה וכן יהודים קשישים, ידועי שם ובעלי זכויות מיוחדות, ומשם להעבירם בהדרגה למחנות ההשמדה. ואכן, הם הפכו את העיר לגטו, ובין 4 לנובמבר 1941 ל-20 באפריל 1945 גירשו אליו כ-140,000 יהודים. בספטמבר 1942 הגיעה אוכלוסיית הגטו לשיא (53,000 נפש). מתוך היהודים שעברו בגטו מתו בו כ-33,000 ו-80,000 גורשו למחנות ההשמדה. בסתיו 1944 נותרו בטרזין 11,000 נפש בלבד.

רוב היהודים בטרזין היו מתבוללים, רבים מהם אמנים, סופרים ומלומדים, ובעזרתם התארגנו חיי תרבות אינטנסיביים: תזמורות, להקת אופרה, תיאטרון ובימות בידור וסאטירה. בהקמת הגטו ובהפעלתו ביקשו הגרמנים להסוות את השמדת יהודי אירופה מפני דעת הקהל בעולם, וזאת על ידי הצגת טרזין כיישוב יהודי לדוגמא.