Samuel Hirsch

Samuel Hirsch (born June 8, 1815, Thalfang, near Trier, Prussia [Germany]—died May 14, 1889, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) was a religious philosopher, rabbi, and a leading advocate of radical Reform Judaism. He was among the first to propose holding Jewish services on Sunday.

Educated at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig, Hirsch became rabbi at Dessau in 1838 but was forced to resign (1841) because of his views. From 1843 to 1866 he served as chief rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Called to Philadelphia in 1866 to succeed David Einhorn as head of the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, he remained in that position for 22 years. He was elected president of the rabbinical conference held in Philadelphia in 1869 and in that capacity helped formulate the principles of Reform Judaism. The conference proclaimed that the dispersal of the Jews was part of a divine plan to lead all nations of the world to the true knowledge and worship of God. For Hirsch, Judaism was not law but Lehre (“doctrine”), which was expressed in symbolic ceremonies that should change as needs require. His most ambitious work, Religionsphilosophie der Juden, 2 vol. (1842), rejected Hegel’s view that Judaism had no right to place itself in the ranks of “absolute religions.”