Haim Nathan Dembitzer (29 June 1820 – 20 November 1892) was a PolishGalicianrabbi and historian.
Dembitzer was born on 29 June 1820 inKraków.[1] His father, Jekuthiel Solomon, a scholarly merchant who claimed he was a descendant of R.Moses Isserles, died in 1833,[2] aged forty-four. On 11 June 1841 Haim Nathan Dembitzer married Doba Deutscher.[3] While diligently occupied with hisTalmudical studies, he came across the "Tzemach Dawid," a chronological work byDavid Gans, which aroused his interest in Jewish biography and history. He received his ordination as rabbi fromSolomon Kluger,Zvi Hirsch Chajes, andDob Berush Meisels, the last named of whom was rabbi of Kraków until 1854. Dembitzer sided nevertheless with Meisel's rival, Saul Landau, in the quarrel about the rabbinate of Kraków. In 1856 Dembitzer became a dayyan in his native city, and was, like his older brother Jacob, advanced to the position of roshBeth din, which he held till his death. In 1874 he visitedGermany and made the acquaintance ofLeopold Zunz and other Jewish scholars, with whom he corresponded on historical subjects.
Dembitzer died on 20 November 1892 in Kraków.
Dembitzer's earlier works were all onhalakic subjects, on which he was a recognized authority. His "Maginne Eretz Yisrael" (responsa,Lemberg, 1852); "Dibre Hen," which appeared as a supplement to Solomon Kluger's "Abodat ha-Kodesh" (Zolkiev, 1863); and "Liwyat Hen" (Kraków, 1882) belong to that class. But the last-named, a critical commentary on the work "RABYH" ofEliezer ben Joel HaLevi, which Dembitzerpublished from a manuscript, contains much valuable material for the history of theTosafists, which is interspersed among thepilpulistic arguments of the main subject. His chief historical work, "Kelilat Yofi," of which the first part, containing biographies of the rabbis of Lemberg and of other Polish communities, appeared in 1888, and the second part, also biographical and historical, in 1893 (Kraków), is an important contribution to the science of Judaism. He is also the author of "Michtave Bikoret," a valuable correspondence with the historianHeinrich Graetz about theCouncil of Four Lands ("Otzar ha-Sifrut," iv. 193-243; also published separately, Kraków, 1892), and of a biography of theTosafist Joseph Porat, which appeared posthumously in "Ha-Hoker," ii. 48-59. The "Mappelet Ir ha-Tzedek" (1878), a severe and vindictive criticism of J. M. Zunz's "Ir ha-Tzedek" on the rabbis of Kraków, was likewise written by him, although the name of Joel Dembitzer, his younger brother, appears on the title-page as the nominal author.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Louis Ginzberg andPeter Wiernik (1901–1906)."Dembitzer, Hayyim Nathan". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.