Deutsch, Israel

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DEUTSCH, ISRAEL

DEUTSCH, ISRAEL (1800–1853), rabbi of Beuthen (Bytom). He and his brother david (1810–1873), rabbi of Muslowitz (Myslowice) and Sohrau (Zory), Germany (now Poland), were militant champions of *Orthodoxy against *Reform. They opposed Abraham *Geiger's nomination as rabbi of Breslau and wrote jointly a pamphlet attacking his views (1843). David took a strong stand against rabbinical *conferences (Asaf Asefah, 1846) and the use of the organ in the synagogue. He published an annotated edition (with translation) of the Book of Habakkuk (1837) and Isaac of *Troki's Ḥizzuk Emunah (1865). Israel's letters to Abraham Muhr (Zera Israel, 1855, 26ff.), written between 1837 and 1846, are indicative of Orthodox thought in Germany at that time. The sermons of the two brothers were a synthesis between the old-style derashah and modern preaching. A third brother, abraham, was dayyan at Gleiwitz (Gliwice). The Orientalist Emanuel Oskar *Deutsch was their nephew.

bibliography:

J. Nordin, David Deutsch… (Ger., 1902); W.G. Plant, Rise of Reform Judaism (1963), 257–8; Toury, in: blbi, 8 (1965), 69–80.