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Joseph Rabinowitz

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Joseph Rabinowitz
Personal details
Born(1837-09-23)September 23, 1837
Resina, Russian Empire
DiedMay 17, 1899(1899-05-17) (aged 61)
Odessa, Russian Empire

Joseph Rabinowitz (23 September 1837 – 17 May 1899) was a Russian Messianic Jewish rabbi, who founded the Hebrew Christian movement Novy Israel in 1882.[1] While considered by some modern Jews to be a Christian missionary, he considered himself Jewish until the day of his death.

Biography

Rabinowitz was born on 23 September 1837 in Resina, Bessarabia.[2] He was brought up as a Ḥasid[citation needed], but later acquired some secular knowledge and mastered the Russian language. For a time he practiced law in the lower courts of his native town, settling subsequently in Kishinev.

In 1882 he founded the movement Novy Israel among the Jewish people of Kishinev. Novy Israel held that Jewish people did not need to leave their Jewishness for Christianity, but instead would maintain what Rabinowitz called a "Hebrew" identity while holding that the historical figure of Yeshua Ben-Joseph--called "Jesus" by modern Christians--was the Jewish Messiah.[3] His congregation was called "Bnei Israel, Bnei Brit Chadasha" ("Israelites of the New Covenant"), and is considered by members of the Messianic Jewish movement to be the first Torah-observant Messianic congregation in the modern era.[4]

Rabinowitz was known for speaking against the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and wrote his own Passover Haggadah.[3] While many modern rabbinic Jewish sects consider him a convert to Protestantism,[1] Rabinowitz never considered himself as having left Judaism,[3] even after he was baptized in Berlin on 24 March 1885.[5] His baptism occurred in an interdenominational service, but was still a source of conflict between himself and Isaac Lichtenstein, an Orthodox rabbi who is also considered one of the early founders of modern Messianic Judaism. Lichtenstein held that the corruption and evil of the Christian church was too great to permit a baptism or mikveh within a Christian context.[3]

Following immediately upon the founding of the Bibleitzy brotherhood by Jacob Gordin at Elizabethgrad, the new movement attracted much attention, and was freely discussed in Russian newspapers. Rabinowitz succeeded for a time in interesting Christian Hebraist Franz Delitzsch in his movement and in allaying the suspicions of the Russian government, which strictly prohibited the formation of new religious movements.[6]

He died in Kishinev on 17 May 1899.[7]

Publications

  • "Descriptions of Russia". Yearbook for the history of Jews and Judaism'. Leipzig: Institute for the Promoting of Hebrew Literature. 1860–1869.
  • Ketuvim le-yeshurun. Published in French as Les souffrances du Messie. Paris: Dépôt Central. 1890.
  • Zwei Predigten in dem Gotteshause Bethlehem in Kischinew. Schriften des Institutum Judaicum in Leipzig ;Nr. 9. Leipzig: Dörffling & Franke. 1885. hdl:2027/hvd.hngeuh.
  • Neue Documente der südrussischen Christentumsbewegung. Schriften des Institutum Judaicum in Leipzig,16. Leipzig: Dörffling & Franke. 1887.
  • A Short Biography of Joseph Rabinowitsch of Kishinew, Southern-Russia: With Extracts from His Sermons. K. C. Holter. 1917.
  • A Short Biography of Rev. Joseph Rabinowitsch of Kishinew, Russia with Extracts from His Sermons Delivered in Russia and England. K.C. Holter Publishing Company. 1917.

References

  • Fauerholdt, I. (1914). "Joseph Rabinowitsch: A Prophetic Figure of the Modern Judaism". Small Writings on the Jewish Mission. 8. Leipzig.
  • Kjaer-Hansen, Kai (1988). Josef Rabinowitsch og den messianske bevægelse. Århus: Forlaget Okay-Bog. English translation: Joseph Rabinowitz and the Messianic Movement: The Heart of Jewish Christianity. Edinburgh: Handsel Press [u.a.] 1995.

Citations

  1. ^ a b  Rosenthal, Herman; Wiernik, Peter (1905). "Rabinowitz, Joseph". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 303–304.
  2. ^ Schodde, George H. (1888). "Josph Rabinowitch, the Jewish-Christian Leader". The Missionary Review of the World. New Series. 1 (3). Funk & Wagnalls: 193–197.
  3. ^ a b c d Plosciaru, Iemima. Interpreting Conversion: Nineteenth century Messianic Jewish leaders in the struggle for legitimacy. (n.d.). Kesher, 2015. Journal article accessed online at https://www.kesherjournal.com/article/interpreting-conversion-nineteenth-century-messianic-jewish-leaders-in-the-struggle-for-legitimacy/
  4. ^ History of Messianic Judaism | Jewish Voice. (n.d.). https://www.jewishvoice.org/read/blog/history-messianic-judaism
  5. ^ Mead, C. M. (1890). "The Baptism, in Berlin, of Joseph Rabinowitz (a Russian Jew), by an American Clergyman". New Englander and Yale Review. New Series. 16 (3). New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor: 245–252.
  6. ^ Sistematicheski Ukazatel, St. Petersburg, 1892
  7. ^ Rainer Reuter (1994). "Rabinowitsch, Joseph (Osip)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 7. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1175–1177. ISBN 3-88309-048-4..
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