Adolf Jellinek

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Adolf Jellinek

Adolf Jellinek (Hebrew: אהרן ילינק‎ Aharon Jelinek, June 26, 1821, Drslavice, nearby Uherské Hradiště, Moravia (now Czech Republic) - December 29, 1893, Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig (1845 - 1856), he became a preacher at the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna in 1856.

He was associated with the promoters of the New Learning within Judaism, and wrote on the history of the Kabbalah. His bibliographies (each bearing the Hebrew title Qontres) were useful compilations, but his most important work lay in three other directions:

1. Midrashic. Jellinek published in the six parts of his Beth ha-Midrasch (1853-1878) a large number of smaller Midrashim, ancient and medieval homilies and folklore records, which have been of much service in the revival of interest in Jewish apocalyptic literature. A translation of these collections of Jellinek into German was undertaken by August Wuensche, under the general title Aus Israels Lehrhalle.
2. Psychological. Before the study of ethnic psychology had become a science, Jellinek devoted attention to the subject. There is much keen analysis and original investigation in his two essays Der jüdische Stamm (1869) and Der jüdische Stamm in nicht-jüdischen Sprichwörtern (1881-1882). It is to Jellinek that we owe the oft-repeated comparison of the Jewish temperament to that of women in its quickness of perception, versatility and sensibility.
3. Homiletic. Jellinek was probably the greatest synagogue orator of the 19th century. He published some 200 sermons, in most of which are displayed unobtrusive learning, fresh application of old sayings, and a high conception of Judaism and its claims. Jellinek was a powerful apologist and an accomplished homilist, at once profound and ingenious.

His wife was Rosalie Bettelheim (b. 1832 in Budapest, d. 1892 in Baden bei Wien). His eldest son, Georg Jellinek, was appointed professor of international law at Heidelberg in 1891. Another son, Max Hermann Jellinek (1868-1938), was made assistant professor of German philology at Vienna University in 1892, became an associate professor in 1900 and was a full professor from 1906 till 1934, and from 1919 also a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.^[1] A third son, Emil Jellinek (1853-1918), was a wealthy businessman on the French Riviera, and lateron the Austrian consul in Monaco, who used his daughter's name Mercedes as a pseudonym when practising his racing hobby. His business association with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft became so intense that the new model he ordered was named the Mercedes car, and in 1903 Emil Jellinek himself was permitted to change his name to Jellinek-Mercedes - "probably the first time ever that a father bears the name of his daughter", was his comment.^[2]

A brother of Adolf, Hermann Jellinek (born 1823), was executed at the age of 26 on account of his association with the Hungarian national movement of 1848. One of Hermann Jellinek's best-known works was Uriel Acosta. Another brother, Moritz Jellinek (1823-1883), was an accomplished economist, and contributed to the Academy of Sciences essays on the price of cereals and on the statistical organization of the country. He founded the Budapest tramway company (1864) and was also president of the corn exchange.

See Jewish Encyclopedia, vii.92-94. For a character sketch of Adolf Jellinek see S. Singer, Lectures and Addresses (1908), pp. 88-93; Kohut, Beruehmte israelitische Manner und Frauen.

References

1. ^ IGL 1800-1950, p.844
2. ^ Mercedes-Benz Austria homepage

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• A. J.: Gedächtnißrede auf die im letzten Kriege gefallenen Soldaten israelitischer Religion (Vienna: Herzfeld & Bauer, 1867) (German)

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