Louis Ginzberg | |
|---|---|
 Louis Ginzberg in 1921 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1873-11-28)November 28, 1873 |
| Died | November 11, 1953(1953-11-11) (aged 79) New York City, United States |
| Children | Eli Ginzberg |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Conservative |
Louis Ginzberg (Hebrew:לוי גינצבורג,Levy Gintzburg;Russian:Леви Гинцберг,Levy Ginzberg; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was aRussian-born Americanrabbi andTalmudic scholar ofLithuanian-Jewish descent,contributing editor to numerous articles ofThe Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), and leading figure in theConservative movement ofJudaism during the early 20th century.
Ginzberg was born inKaunas,Vilna Governorate (then called Kovno). His religiousLithuanian-Jewish family's piety and erudition were renowned, seeing that they traced theirlineage back to theGaon of Vilna's brother.[1] Ginzberg received a traditional Jewish education,[2] and later studied in German universities.[3]
Ginzberg first arrived in the United States in 1899. He began teaching theTalmud at theJewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) from its reorganization in 1902[4] until his death in 1953. During this time, he trained two generations of futureConservative rabbis, influencing almost every rabbi of the Conservative movement in a personal way. Ginzberg was highly praised by his colleagues;[4] JTS leaderLouis Finkelstein described him as a "living symbol of love forTorah".[4] Leading Israeli ConservativeposekDavid Golinkin has written prolifically on Ginzberg and published a collection of hisresponsa.[5]
Ginzberg's knowledge made him the expert to defend Judaism both in national and international affairs. In 1906, he defended the Jewish community againstanti-Semitic accusations that Jews ritually slaughteredGentiles. In 1913,Louis Marshall requested that Ginzberg refute theBeilis blood libel charge inKyiv. On account of his impressive scholarship inJewish studies, Ginzberg was one of 66 scholars honored with a doctorate byHarvard University in celebration of its tercentenary in 1936.[3]
In his opening address to students, Ginzberg spoke of the need to keep Conservative Jewry under therubric ofhalakha.
The conception that in religious matters anyone, however ignorant, can judge for himself, is the direct denial of the old Jewishmaxim, 'The ignorant cannot be pious' (Avot 2:5) ... The majority vote of a Board of Directors of a synagogue is, after all, a negligible quantity when it is in opposition to the vote of historical Judaism with its myriad of Saints and thousands of Sages ... The sorting, distributing, selecting, harmonizing and completing can only be done by experienced hands.
Ginzberg's initiative to basehalakhic decisions on law committees and not laymen is the method the Conservative movement describes as its present one till today.
In 1918, at the Sixth Annual Convention, Ginzberg, as the acting president, declared thatUnited Synagogue of Conservative Judaism stood for 'historical Judaism' and thus elaborates:
Now let us understand the exact meaning of the expression historical Judaism ... Looking at Judaism from a historical point of view, we become convinced that there is no one aspect deep enough to exhaust the content of such a complex phenomenon as Judaism ... Accordingly, Torah-less Judaism ... would be an entirely new thing and not the continuation of something given ...
Ginzberg sought to emulate the Vilna Gaon's intermingling of "academic knowledge" in Torah studies under the label "historical Judaism"; for example, in his bookStudents, Scholars and Saints, Ginzberg quotes the Vilna Gaon's instruction, "Do not regard the views of theShulchan Aruch as binding if you think that they are not in agreement with those of the Talmud."
In 1943, Ginzberg predicted that afterthe war, only two centers of Jewish culture would remain in the world: The United States andPalestine—with the latter depending upon the former for support. He foresaw problems for the Jews remaining in Europe due to their being perceived as those who caused Germany to lose the war.[3]
One of Ginzberg's responsa concerns the use of wine in the Jewish community during theProhibition Era. TheEighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1920, declared that "the manufacture, sale, or transportation ofintoxicating liquors within ... the United States ... for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." The subsequentVolstead Act defined "intoxicating liquors" and provided for several exceptions, one of which as forsacramental use. TheChristian Church was able to successfully regulate the use of ceremonial wine. The clergy could easily monitor the nominal amount of sacramental wine that each worshipper drank, especially because it was usually drunk only in Church and only on Sundays (for thecommunion or Eucharist ceremony). This was not the case for the Jews, who needed a greater quantity of wine per person. Furthermore, the wine was drunk in the privacy of the home onShabbat,Jewish holidays,weddings, andbrit milah (circumcision) ceremonies. This alone would have made the regulation of ceremonial wine complicated. It was not difficult for crooks to rig illegal "wine synagogues" to trick the government to receive their wine which would then be bootlegged.[6]
While contemporary Orthodox Jewish authorities are generally permissive ofgrape juice as a wine substitute,[7] Orthodox rabbis of the 1920s soundly rejected its use.[6] TheReform movement in 1920 proclaimed that grape juice be used instead of wine to eliminate future complaints. Shortly afterwards, on January 24, 1922, theConservative movement publicized the 71-page response written by Ginzberg tackling thehalakhic aspects of drinking grape juice instead of wine in light of the historical circumstances. Besides Ginzberg's well-grounded decision to permit grape juice, he includes meta-halakhic reasoning:
The decision of the author ofMagen Abraham that the commandment is honored best by the use of old wine is rejected. Even this authority would admit that it is better to pronounce thekiddush over new wine than todesecrate the Divine Name and to disgrace the Jewish people, and we well know the damage caused the Jewish people by the trafficking in sacramental wine.
At the time of Ginzburg's responsum, the Orthodox rabbinate had exclusive authority to sanction sacramental wine for Jews, and the responsum was thought by the Orthodox community to be tainted by self-interest.[6]
Ginzberg was the author of a number of scholarly Jewish works, including a commentary on theJerusalem Talmud and his six-volume (plus a one-volume index)The Legends of the Jews, (1909) which combined hundreds of legends andparables from a lifetime ofmidrash research.[8]The Legends of the Jews is an original synthesis of a vast amount ofaggadah from all of classicalrabbinic literature, as well asapocryphal,pseudopigraphical and even early Christian literature, with legends ranging from the creation of the world and the fall of Adam, through a huge collection of legends on Moses, and ending with the story of Esther and the Jews in Persia.[9]
Ginzberg also writeGeonica (1909), an account of the BabylonianGeonim containing lengthy extracts from their responsa, as discovered in the form of fragments in theCairo Genizah. He continued this work in the similar collection entitledGinze Schechter (1929).
Ginzberg wrote 406 articles and severalmonograph-length entries for theJewish Encyclopedia (Levy 2002), some later collected in hisLegend and Lore.[10] He was also founder and president of the American Academy of Jewish Research.[citation needed]
Many of hishalakhic responsa are collected inThe Responsa of Professor Louis Ginzberg, edited byDavid Golinkin.[11]
Ginzberg had a long term platonic relationship withHenrietta Szold, who was his editor at theJewish Publication Society.[9] She was in love with him, but was 13 years older than him.[8]
Ginzberg visited Berlin in 1908 and became engaged toAdele Katzenstein while he was there. Katzenstein was about 22 at the time. They had two children. SonEli Ginzberg (1911–2002) was a professor of economics atColumbia University. The second child was a daughter, Sophie Ginzberg Gould (1914–1985).[8]
