Kahn, Nathan Samuel; (2024) Beyond the Bima: Reconfigurations of Rabbinical Authority in Eastern Ashkenas, 1865 - 1902. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis focuses upon the reconfiguration of rabbinical authority in Eastern Ashkenas during the last third of the nineteenth century through the action of several key figures. The period of study, 1865–1902, was characterized by great permutations in the world at large, Jewish society and culture, and in the realm of Jewish religious observance. Traditional rabbinical authority, long based on scholarship, was under threat from several areas, including governmental intervention, reform movements and urbanization. The growing prominence of the press transformed the Jewish public sphere, offering new opportunities and mobility to a Jewish society whose observance had previously been dominant. The resultant pressures upon the rabbinate challenged the office to retain communal integrity and required new platforms to preserve relevance. This thesis assesses the attempts of leading rabbinical figures to maintain a leadership position within Jewish society via other means. The principal subjects of this study, Rabbis Isaac Rülf (1831–1902), Shmuel Mohilever (1824–1898) and Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor (1817–1896), each adopted singular missions which defined alternative platforms in achieving increased authority and jurisdiction for the rabbinate. Rülf’s activities in a pioneering use of the rabbinate, leading a cross-border, wide-ranging philanthropic relief project during the famine of 1868/9 and his early advocacy of a cross-border Jewish consciousness marked a new and innovative use of the office. Mohilever’s call for measured, open dialogue between opposing factions, and for a broader, inclusive definition of Jewish society served as a potential roadmap for retaining communal harmony. Spektor’s ground-breaking, lenient rulings expanded his rabbinical jurisdiction considerably and his efforts to provide maximum flexibility in traditional jurisprudence brought relief to many Jewish communities. In a concluding comparative assessment, this thesis finds similarities as well as important differences in the strategies employed.

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