Kirschstein, Moritz

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KIRSCHSTEIN, MORITZ

KIRSCHSTEIN, MORITZ (1826–1900), pedagogue, active in Reform Judaism. Born in Chodziez (Poznan), he received his talmudic education in Glogau and, under the guidance of Israel b. Gedaliah *Lipschuetz, in Danzig (Gdansk). After studying philosophy in Berlin, where he also studied under L. *Zunz, he taught religion at the Jewish community's boys' school, and from 1866 he was director of the first Jewish religious school in Berlin. He was a member of the commission that compiled the Reform prayer book for the Berlin community and was entrusted by Abraham *Geiger with editing the German text of the prayers. Kirschstein published Der Unterricht in der Religion und im Hebraeischen (1863), on teaching religion and Hebrew; and Der Unterricht in der biblischen Geschichte (1871), on the teaching of biblical history. A collection of scientific treatises, lectures, speeches, and sermons, among them Avnei Zikkaron (Predigten; 1902), was published after his death.

bibliography:

Festschrift zur Feier des hundertjaehrigen Bestehens der Knabenschule der juedischen Gemeinden in Berlin (1926), 107; A. Kober, in: lbyb, 2 (1957), 111.

[Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)]

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