JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

land Historical Magazine, 15 (1920), 1–20; E.M. Altfeld, Jews Struggle
for Religious and Civil Liberty in Maryland (1924), index; A.J.M.
Pedley (ed.), Manuscript Collections of the Maryland Historical Society
(1968), index.
[Isaac M. Fein]
ETTINGER, family noted for its scholars and community
leaders, originally from *Oettingen, Bavaria, from which the
name derives. It is probably related to families named Oettingen
or Ettingen: members of its East European branch were
prominent in Jewish life in modern times. First of note was
Ḥayyim Judah Leib Ettinger who in 1717 moved from Holesov
(Holleschau), Moravia, to head a yeshivah in Lemberg,
Poland. His brother, JOSEPH, served as a preacher in Glogau,
Silesia, and wrote commentaries on the Torah, Edut bi-Yehosef
(Sulz bach, 1741). Ḥayyim’s son AARON (1720–1769), rabbi in
Jaworow and Rzeszow, fought the spread of Ḥasidism in Galicia.
Well-known in the 19th century were Mordecai Ze’ev *Ettinger
and his brother-in-law, Joseph Saul ha-Levi *Nathanson.
Mordecai’s son, Isaac Aaron Ettinger (1827–1891), served
as rabbi in Przemysl and Lemberg. With BARUCH MORDECAI,
rabbi of *Bobruisk in *Belorussia for about 50 years until he
settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1851, the family assumed a leading position
in *Chabad ḥasidic circles; Baruch Mordecai was a close
disciple of *Shneur Zalman of Lyady. In the 20th century many
members of the family, such as Akiva *Ettinger, took a prominent
part in the economic and cultural life of East European
Jewry and Ereẓ Israel. SAMUEL ETTINGER (1919–1988), who
was born in Kiev, became professor of Jewish history at the
Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He wrote Toledot Yisrael ba-Et
ha-Ḥadashah (“Jewish History in Modern Times,” 1970) and
edited a volume of essays by H. Graetz in Hebrew (Darkhei
ha-Historiyah ha-Yehudit, 1969).
Bibliography: S. Buber, Anshei Shem (1895), 25, 67–69,
123–4, 151–2; Ch. N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 1 (1960), 116–27, 146–9;
J. Slutzky (ed.), Sefer Bobruisk (1967), 269. Add. Bibliography:
“Devarim le-Zikhroh shel Shemuel Ettinger,” in: Zion, 53:4 (1988),
423–40.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
ETTINGER, AKIVA JACOB (1872–1945), agricultural expert;
founder and administrator of Jewish settlements in Ereẓ
Israel. Ettinger, born in Vitebsk, Belorussia, came from a distinguished
family (his mother was descended from R. Akiva
*Eger). He studied agriculture at the University of St. Petersburg
and in West European countries. Representing the *Jewish
Colonization Association (ICA), he took part in 1898 in
an investigation of the situation of Jewish farmers in southern
Russia, and was then asked to establish a Jewish model
farm in Bessarabia. In 1911 he served as agricultural adviser
to ICA in South America. Ettinger, together with *Aḥad Ha-
Am, was sent to Ereẓ Israel in 1902 by the *Odessa Committee
of Ḥovevei Zion to investigate the state of the Jewish settlements.
In 1914 he was asked by the Zionist Organization and
the Jewish National Fund to serve as adviser and inspector
for Jewish agricultural settlement in Ereẓ Israel, but because
ettinger, mordecai ze’ev ben isaac aaron segal
of the outbreak of war he went to The Hague, where the Jewish
National Fund had its temporary head office. There he
wrote a programmatic booklet, Jewish Colonization in Palestine:
Methods, Plans and Capital (19162, published in English,
German, and Russian).
During the negotiations over the *Balfour Declaration,
Ettinger was invited by Chaim *Weizmann to London as adviser
on settlement matters, and composed a comprehensive
memorandum, Palestine after the War: Proposals for Administration
and Development (1918). Ettinger settled in Palestine
in 1918, serving as director of the agricultural settlement department
of the Zionist Organization until 1924. In 1919, after
the purchase of land for *Kiryat Anavim on the rocky Judean
hills, he founded the village which became a model for hill
settlements. His most important achievement involved the
vast settlement project of the Jezreel Valley during 1921–24.
From 1924 to 1932 Ettinger played a prominent role on behalf
of the Jewish National Fund in the purchase of land and the
drafting and implementation of settlement (the kevuẓah, kibbutz,
and moshav) and aided their development on a mixed
farming basis with emphasis on dairy farming and orchards.
He also introduced new afforestation methods. From 1932 until
his death Ettinger was adviser to the agricultural Yakhin
Company of the Histadrut.
Ettinger wrote many articles on agriculture in Ereẓ Israel.
His booklets include Nahalal (1924), Emek Yizre’el (1926), and
Ha-Karmel (1931). His memoirs are titled Im Ḥakla’im Yehudim
ba-Tefuẓot (“With Jewish Farmers in the Diaspora,” 1942),
and Im Ḥakla’im Ivriyyim be-Arẓenu (“With Hebrew Farmers
in our Country,” 1945).
Bibliography: A. Bein, Return to the Soil (1952), index.
[Alexander Bein]
ETTINGER, MORDECAI ZE’EV BEN ISAAC AARON
SEGAL (1804–1863), Polish rabbinical scholar, and scion of
a long line of rabbis (see *Ettinger family). He studied under
Naphtali Hirsch Sohastov, rabbi of Lemberg, and under his
own uncle, Jacob *Ornstein. Although renowned for his great
scholarship, he never occupied a rabbinical position, his considerable
personal fortune rendering him independent. In 1857
he was chosen rabbi of Cracow and its environs and indicated
his acceptance but changed his mind. He served as “nasi of
the Holy Land” of the Austrian kolel, an honorable position
always given to the greatest of the rabbis. In this capacity he
did much to help consolidate the position of the Jewish community
in Ereẓ Israel. He studied together with his brotherin-law,
Joseph Saul ha-Levi *Nathanson, many joint works
resulting from their 25 years of collaboration.
First and foremost of them was Mefareshei ha-Yam (Lemberg,
1827), novellae and elucidation appended to the Yam ha-
Talmud on the tractate Bava Kamma, by their uncle, Moses
Joshua Heshel Ornstein of Tarnogrod; at the end of this work
is included their halakhic correspondence with such contemporaries
as Moses *Sofer, Mordecai *Banet, and Akiva *Eger.
Their remaining joint works to be noted are Me’irat Einayim
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 543