Akiba Israel Wertheimer

Akiba Israel Wertheimer (1778-1835) was the first Chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein.[1]

Akiba Israel Wertheimer
Translation:

The image of the Great Wise Rabbi Famous of name and glory Akiva Wertheimer zt"l (tzadik of blessed memory)

Rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court of the holy community of Altona and the Medinah

TitleChief Rabbi
Personal
Born
Jacob Viktor Wertheimer

1778
Wrocław, Kingdom of Prussia
(modern-day Poland)
Died20 May 1836, age about 57
Altona, Kingdom of Denmark
(modern-day Germany)
ReligionJudaism
NationalityPrussian, Danish
Parents
  • Avigdor Wertheimer (father)
Jewish leader
SuccessorJacob Ettlinger

Life

Akiba (or Ekiva or Akiva) Wertheimer was born in Wrocław, Prussia in about 1778. His father was Torah scholar Avigdor Wertheimer (died 1826). Akiba went to the Talmudic academy of Akiba Eger in Mirosławiec, which was one of the most important in the region.

He came with his parents to Altona, now a suburb of Hamburg but which was then an independent city under the administration of the Danish monarchy, where in 1805 he was a Melamed (teacher of Torah and Talmud school). In 1806 he was appointed Rabbi in Moisling and Lübeck. Due to the expulsion of the Jews in Lübeck and poverty in the Moisling Jewish community, in 1816 he moved to Altona where he remained until his death.

In 1819 he opposed the Hamburg-based reformers of Judaism and banned the use of the Jewish prayer book in the German language.[2]

In 1823 he was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein. For the Altona rabbinate, he was successor to Rabbi Mendel Hirsch Frankfurter,[3] the grandfather of Samson Raphael Hirsch.

Akiba Wertheimer died in Altona in 1835, and was succeeded as Chief Rabbi by Jacob Ettlinger.

Family

Wertheimer had four daughters and four sons:

  • Betty Wertheimer
  • Miriam Wertheimer
  • Hanna Wertheimer
  • Jakob Wertheimer (1799–??) ∞ Renette Levy
  • Abraham Hirsch Wertheimer
  • Meir (Meyer) Wertheimer who emigrated to Birmingham, England, where he changed his name to Martin Wertheimer and became a jeweller
  • Moses Wertheimer (1807–1887) – Torah scholar and father of German philosopher Constantin Brunner (born Aryeh Yehuda Wertheimer) ∞ Rachel (Rieke) Levy
  • Jette Wertheimer (1801–1890) ∞ Isaac Joseph Michael (born 1795)

Literature
  • Abraham Suhl: Zu Constantin Brunners Biographie. In: Der Constantin Brunner Gedanke. (To Constantin Brunner's biography. In The Constantin Brunner thought.) Edited by Dr. R. Pinner u. Dr. A. Suhl, Year 1, Issue 3/4, August 1955 pp 21–33

References
  1. Wertheimer family database
  2. The origins of the Aron family p6
  3. Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture Edited by Glenda Abramson, Routledge, 2005
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