HOROWITZ, SHRAGA FEIVEL HA-LEVI

HOROWITZ, SHRAGA FEIVEL HA-LEVI (1796–1845), Hungarian rabbi. Horowitz served from 1836 as av bet din of Paks and from 1841 to 1845 as rabbi of Papa. As a result of the spread of the Reform movement in Germany in 1834 and its influence upon the Jews of Hungary, internal quarrels between the Orthodox and the Reformers intensified in the communities of Hungary. The Orthodox circles realized the necessity of appointing devout rabbis for the benefit of Orthodox Jewry. Horowitz took the initiative in organizing an assembly of rabbis to discuss the situation and was appointed its chairman when it assembled in Paks in 1844. It was attended by 25 rabbis, among them Judah Asad and Eliakim Goetz Schwerin of Baja. At this assembly Loeb Schwab put forward proposals for moderate reform in education and in the liturgy, but he was opposed by the other rabbis, and after he and Schwerin left the meeting various resolutions proposed by Horowitz were adopted. They included the division of the Orthodox Jewish communities of Hungary into four regions, the organizing of a national assembly of the rabbis, and the setting up of a national conference which would meet every three years. The assembly also discussed the problems of the relations between Jews and Christians in the sphere of commerce. On receiving authority to prepare the second convention of rabbis at Ofen, Horowitz attempted to get in touch with the Liberal Jews, for which he was rebuked by Judah Asad. As a result of the death of Horowitz in 1845, the second assembly did not take place. Horowitz was in halakhic correspondence with Moses *Sofer, Judah Asad, Meir *Eisenstadt, and Isaac Moses *Perles, and is mentioned in their responsa. A eulogy on him appears in the Derashot ha-Rosh (1904) of A. Shag-Zwebner (no. 70).

bibliography:

Der Orient, 5 (1844), 301; azdj, 8 (1844), nos. 37, 38, 40, 45; 9 (1845), no. 21; L. Loew, Zur neueren Geschichte der Juden in Ungarn (1874), 200–4; idem, Gesammelte Schriften, 2 (1890), 369–71; P.Z. Schwartz, Shem ha-Gedolim me-Ereẓ Hagar, 2 (1913), 27b no. 7; J.J. (L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Li-Felagot Yisrael be-Ungaryah (1929), 34–39.

[Yehoshua Horowitz]