Halden, Robert, 1942-

Israel (also spelled Azriel, Esriel, or Ezriel) Hildesheimer was one of the founders and leaders of modern Orthodoxy in Germany. He was born in Halberstadt in 1820, the son of Rabbi Lieb Hildesheimer (formerly Glei) and Golda Goslar. He attended the Jewish school in his hometown until he was seventeen, when he went to study in Altona with the Orthodox rabbi Jakob Ettlinger. He also attended lectures given by the Hamburg rabbi Isaac Bernays. After returning to Halberstadt, Hildesheimer finished his studies at the Dom Gymnasium . Unlike most Orthodox Jews of the time, he decided to continue his studies at the university level. When he was twenty, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy, literature, languages, and mathematics. In 1842 Hildesheimer went to Halle, where he completed his university studies in 1844 with a dissertation on biblical interpretation ("Über die Rechte Art der Bibelinterpretation"). After the conclusion of his education, Hildesheimer returned to Halberstadt, where he married Henriette Hirsch, sister of Joseph Hirsch, Kommerzienrat and owner of Aron Hirsch & Sohn.

In 1851 Israel Hildesheimer was called to be the rabbi of Eisenstadt (then Kis Marton, Hungary, presently located in Austria). He stayed in Eisenstadt for nineteen years, where he and Henriette had ten children: Levi, Esther, Aron, Hirsch, Moses, Lea, Röschen, Gustav, Mayer, and Jenny. At that time, Orthodoxy frowned upon secular education, but Hildesheimer established a school for the Jewish community where both religion and other subjects were taught. He also founded a seminary for educating rabbis, where history, literature, mathematics, Latin, and Greek were taught in addition to religious courses and Hebrew. His attempts to give secular learning a firm place in rabbinical studies brought him into conflict with more traditional Orthodox Jews.

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