TIKTIN

TIKTIN , rabbinical family originating in Tykocin (Tiktin), near Bialystok, Poland. abraham ben gedaliah (1764–1820) became a rabbi in his birthplace Schwersenz (Swarzędz), in Lęczyca, and from 1803 in *Glogau (in Silesia). In 1816 he was appointed Oberlandrabbiner of Silesia at Breslau. Of 12 rabbinic works, only his Petaḥ ha-Bayit was published (Dyhernfurth, 1820; republished 1910, Warsaw). His son solomon (1791–1843) succeeded his father in the Breslau and Silesian rabbinate. He became involved in controversy with the Reform movement when, in 1836, he prohibited the publication in Breslau of M. Brueck's Reform des Judenthums (Nagy-Becskerek, 1848), and opposed two years later the appointment of Abraham *Geiger as assistant rabbi, preacher, and dayyan in Breslau. He and his son, Gedaliah, conducted a bitter campaign against Geiger, mustering Orthodox circles and having the support of the Prussian conservative bureaucracy and clergy; this struggle became a cause célèbre in both Jewish and gentile circles. Geiger was supported primarily by the patrician, educated Jewish leadership while Tiktin had the support of the majority of the community.

gedaliah (c. 1810–1886), Solomon's son, was elected rabbi of Breslau by the Orthodox faction in 1843; this election was confirmed in 1846, and in 1854 his nomination as Landrabbiner was confirmed, the government identifying his religious Orthodoxy with political loyalty. When Geiger left Breslau for Frankfurt in 1863, Gedaliah came to terms with his successor Manuel *Joel and a compromise was reached by which separate communal institutions were maintained for both Orthodox and Reform. heinrich (1850–1936), Gedaliah's son, was a philologist and Romanian grammarian.

bibliography:

M. Brann, in: Jubelschrift … H. Graetz (1887), 277f.; E. Schreiber, Abraham Geiger (1892), 20ff.; S. Tiktin, in: azj, 84 (1920), 452–4 (on Abraham); M. Wiener, Abraham Geiger and Liberal Judaism (1962), 17–33.