Schorsch, Emil 1899-1982

Emil Schorsch was a rabbi in both Germany and, later, the United States. Throughout his rabbinical career he was a strong proponent of conservative Judaism.

He was born in Hüngheim (Baden) in 1899. After attending a teachers' seminar in Esslingen he began his studies at the Jüdisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau in 1923. In 1926 he married Fanny Rothschild from Esslingen, in Württemberg. He graduated from the seminary in 1928. In 1927, a year before graduation, he accepted a position as Ortsrabbiner in Hanover, with the special responsibility of developing programming for Jewish youth. In 1931 he became president of the Zion-Loge Hanover, the local branch of the B'nai B'rith . He was also a member of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Rabbiner-Verband .

In the summer of 1933 Emil Schorsch was sent by the Jewish community to Palestine to learn how to prepare Jewish youth for immigration from Germany. Upon his return to Germany he began to train Jews for immigration to Palestine, in addition to fulfilling his rabbinical duties in Hanover.

Among Emil Schorsch's accomplishments in Hanover were the organization of religious youth educational programs, having Hebrew recognized as compulsory for receiving a high school diploma ( Abitur ), and the establishment of a Lehrhaus that existed for ten years. In addition, Emil Schorsch established a Jugendheim (youth center) for the community. He also worked at cultivating both the choir and the library of the congregation.

During Kristallnacht of November 1938 the synagogue was destroyed. Emil Schorsch was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp for ten days along with other leading members of the Jewish community. He subsequently immigrated to England in December 1938, along with his wife, Fanny, and their two children, after receiving a permit from the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Rabbi Hertz. They moved to the United States in March 1940.

Emil Schorsch served as a rabbi in Pottstown, Pennsylvania from 1940 until 1964, as well as a military chaplain in the Pottstown area throughout the Second World War. In 1963, he returned to Germany and gave a speech at the opening of the new Hanover synagogue. He died in Vineland, New Jersey in 1982. His son, the historian Ismar Schorsch, served as the sixth Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and as the President of the Leo Baeck Institute.

From the guide to the Emil Schorsch Collection, 1841-1999, bulk 1927-1940, (Leo Baeck Institute)