Twenty Festival Sermons (1897-1902)

The "Festpredigten" festival sermons were originally published in German in Frankfurt am Main in 1903. A window into the past, they offer a fascinating glimpse of German Jewry at the turn of the century. The author, Isaac Rosenberg, received his semichah at the Rabbiner-Seminar (Hildesheimer) in Berlin in 1888, and graced the synagogue pulpit in the eastern German city of Thorn for twenty-five years. He belonged to a new class of rabbis known as Rabbiner Doktor with Ph.D.s as well as rabbinic ordination. A leader in his community, Dr Rosenberg delivered passionate sermons in impeccable High German sermons that uplifted and inspired rather than rebuked. Yet they contain messages that are as fresh today as they were a century ago. This English volume includes an intriguing introduction by Dr Fred Gottlieb on the history of German- Jewish homiletics and associated controversies.