Jacob Ettlinger
One of the first German rabbis with academic training, Jacob (Jakob) Ettlinger was born in Karlsruhe and educated at the university in Würzburg. In 1826, he served as a rabbi in the Mannheim area. Ten years later, he was appointed chief rabbi of Altona; in this capacity, he was a prominent spokesman for German neo-Orthodoxy, a combination of adaptations to modernity, secular learning, and strict halakhic observance. He was a strong opponent of Reform Judaism; in 1844, he led a protest against the Brunswick Conference of Reform rabbis. He is known best for his work of Talmudic scholarship, Arukh la-ner. His disciples included other major German rabbis such as Samson Raphael Hirsch and Esriel Hildesheimer.
Content by Jacob Ettlinger
Primary Source
Rabbinic Reports on Circumcision
Primary Source
Arukh la-ner
Primary Source
Responsa binyan tsiyon (Responsa: Building Zion)
Related Guide
European Rabbinic Scholarship
Despite the challenges of the early modern period, rabbinic scholarship flourished in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.