An den hohen constituirenden Reichstag - Denkschrift der von den jüdischen Gemeinden der einzelnen Provinzen des österreichischen Kaiserstaates zur Wahrung ihrer bürgerlichen und politischen Rechte bevollmächtigten vereinigten Comités

HIRSCH, SAMSON RAPHAEL

Rudolph Rohrer

Kremsier

February, 1849

The Revolution of 1848 and the subsequent installation of the benevolent Franz Josef I as Emperor of the Austrian Empire was the opportunity the Jews of Austria were waiting for to assert their rights. Hitherto, Austrian Jews were subjected to cruel and unusual decrees, chief among were the Familiant Laws, which stipulated that only the first-born son in each family might legally marry. In this open letter to the Austrian Parliament, Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, duly authorized head of Moravian Jewry, lances an appeal for equal rights for the Jewish subjects of the Empire. Today, Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-88) is remembered primarily for his championing Orthodoxy and doing battle with the forces of Reform within the Jewish community. Certainly he evolved into that role in the final chapter of his life in Frankfurt. However, in his previous position in Nikolsburg, where he served as Chief Rabbi of Moravia, with fifty-two communities under him, Hirsch assumed the role of champion of his people’s rights. In this capacity, he had the full cooperation of the non-Orthodox elements, several of whose names appear in small print underr that of the chief signatory, “S.R. Hirsch.” See E.M. Klugman, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch(1996), pp. 270-72; Mordecai Breuer, Samson Raphael Hirsch, in: Leo Jung ed., Guardians of our Heritage (1958), pp. 277-78