The Institution of the Rabbinate in Emancipatory Jewish Communities in Moravia and Silesia between 1860-1918
Abstract
"Emancipatory" Jewish communities, able to emerge in Moravia and Austrian Silesia in the second half of the 19th century thanks to the emancipation of the Jews, had to address the issue of the traditional institution of the rabbinate when they were creating their own institutions. The author of this study researches the reasons which led to changes in the status of the rabbinate, from its unquestioning acceptance in the 1860s up to the complete rejection of this institution by Jewish religious municipalities; the efforts of the authorities to force religious municipalities to appoint rabbis.
He further focuses upon the modernisation of the theological and also secular education and the diversification of the rabbis and the consequent question what type of rabbis emancipatory Jewish religious municipalities preferred to appoint and vice versa what type of rabbis were drawn to serve emancipated religious communities.