KLEY, EDUARD

KLEY, EDUARD (Israel ; 1789–1867), German pedagogue and Reform preacher. Orphaned at an early age, Kley studied Talmud at Breslau and then became tutor to the Beer family of Berlin. There he preached in Israel *Jacobson's private temple and associated with L. *Zunz, Auerbach, and other reformers. In 1817–18 he and C.S. Ginsburg published in Berlin Die deutsche Synagoge, which proposed a complete liturgy in German. Moving to *Hamburg as director of the Jewish free school there, Kley preached in the Hamburg Temple, delivering sermons on Sunday and introducing the organ and a choir. He composed numerous hymns imbued with prevalent Romantic themes. Considered one of the leading preachers of his day, Kley published many collections of his hymns and sermons, which were indebted to F. *Schleiermacher and other Protestant preachers. His catechism, published in 1814, influenced Isaac *Leeser, the American reformer. Kley stressed the devotional aspect of religion in his sermons and held that the essence of Judaism was exemplified in the three fundamental principles of Joseph *Albo – belief in the existence of God, belief in revelation, and belief in divine retribution.

bibliography:

H. Jonas, Lebensskizze des Herrn Doctor Eduard Kley… (1859); A. Altmann (ed.), Studies in Nineteenth Century Jewish Intellectual History (1964), index; D. Philipson, The Reform Movement in Judaism (1931), 23, 30, 227; M. Eliav, Ha-Ḥinnukh ha-Yehudi be-Germanyah bi-Ymei ha-Haskalah ve-ha-Emanẓipaẓyah (1960), index; B. Mevorach, in: Zion, 34 (1969), 196ff.