Ehrentreu, Heinrich

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EHRENTREU, HEINRICH

EHRENTREU, HEINRICH (1854–1927), Orthodox German rabbi and author. Ehrentreu was born in Alt-Ofen (Obuda), Hungary. Considered a brilliant talmudist in the yeshivah of Pressburg, he later pursued Semitic studies at the University of Heidelberg (from 1877) and was a tutor in Mainz. Ehrentreu became preacher at the Ohel Jakob synagogue in Munich where he supervised and greatly developed the religious institutions of the Jewish community over a period of 42 years. He was a member of the German chapter of the Rabbinical Council of Agudat Israel. In 1897 Ehrentreu edited the last volume of R.N. *Rabbinovicz's Dikdukei Soferim, 16 (1897). He also published Heker Halakhah ("Halakhic Research," 1904), and Minḥat Pittin, halakhic essays published in 1927/28. Together with Rabbi Jacob Schor of Kuty, he wrote Ẓidkat haẒaddik (1910), a defense of Z.H. *Auerbach's edition of Sefer ha-Eshkol, which had been attacked as a forgery by S. *Albeck. His responsa and numerous articles were published in Jewish scholarly journals. Ehrentreu's son, ernst (jonah) ehrentreu (1896–?), succeeded him. Escaping from Germany to England, Ernst Ehrentreu became rabbi of a small congregation (Adath Yeshurun) in London. He published Untersuchungen ueber die Massora (1925), and Jewish Thought in the Modern World (1947).

bibliography:

S. Levi, in: L. Jung (ed.), Men of the Spirit (1964), 375–87.

[Jacob Hirsch Haberman]

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