BiSe'udath Sivlonoth, mah heamarti al HaChathunah [Wedding Sermon]

(GERMANY).

Frankfurt

1860

Autograph manuscript, in Judeo-German

THE MAINZ FAMILY OF FRANKFURT On Thursday, the 14th of Menachem Av, 1860, there took place the wedding of Eliezer (Lazar) Mainz, son of Michel Mainz, to Mathilde, daughter of R. Moshe Mainz. Present is the sermon delivered at the wedding banquet by the bride's maternal uncle (by marriage). Our genealogical research uncovered that Liebmann (Lazar) Mainz, son of Michael Löb Mainz and Jenny Schloss, born 8th March 1837, married Mathilde Mainz, daughter of Moses Löb Mainz and Fanny (Frumet) Doctor. Fanny Doctor, the bride's mother, was the daughter of Lippmann Beer Doctor and Haila Fuld. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain the name of Fanny's sister, whose husband composed this wedding sermon. The Mainzes were one of Frankfurt's most prominent families. Specifically, Rabbi Moshe Mainz, father of the bride, was a major contributor to the direction taken by the Orthodox community. A Torah scholar of no small stature, he served as a dayan or justice on the Beith Din of Rabbi Trier. History records that R. Moshe Mainz was one of the original eleven signatories on the petition to the Frankfurt Senate requesting the right to form an independent Orthodox community. Later however, when the Reform element of Frankfurt acceded to certain basic requests of the Orthodox, R. Moshe felt that “Austritt” or secession from the mainstream was no longer called for, and from then on sided ideologically with the Würzburger Rav, Rabbi Isaac Dov Bamberger, against the man who had been invited to lead the secessionist community, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. See E.M. Kugman, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1996), pp. 121, 155-6 (photo likeness of R. Moshe Mainz), 166