Jews in Leipzig - The University of Texas at Austin

“Jeschuat-Achim, Verein zur Unterstützung hilfsbedürftiger jüdischer Studenten”
[Society for the support of needy Jewish Students]. 49 In the next two years, two more
charitable organizations were founded. Over the course of the later 19 th Century, though,
many of the charitable functions of the private organizations were taken over by the
Gemeinde.
Several organizations were founded to deal particularly with the needs of the
growing immigrant and Orthodox communities 50 : the “Talmud-Thorah Verein” was in
actuality a private synagogue, but this was a violation of the charter of the Gemeinde, and
so the synagogue was called a Verein and the Gemeinde [and, presumably, the state]
looked the other way. As the immigrant and therefore the Orthodox population grew,
Talmud-Torah was followed in 1918 by Ohel-Jakob, focusing on ritual purity. Ohel-
Jakob eventually opened a synagogue, as did Ez Chaim (1922), which grew under the
leadership of Ephraim Carlebach to become the largest Orthodox synagogue in Saxony.
The “Jüdischer gesetzestreuen Verband” [Jewish “true-to-the law” Association], founded
in 1920, ran a ritual bath, and the Verein “Mischnajis” Leipzig (1915) declared
themselves open for membership to any Jew who “auf dem Boden des gesetzestreuen
Judentum steht” [stands on the basis of “true-to-the law” Judaism]. 51
Clearly, these organizations were for the Orthodox community, and therefore
endorse Rabbi Goldmann’s claims of divisiveness based on doctrine. There were other
Vereine that were more neutral, of course: sporting, charitable, trade groupings. Even
with these, however, there is some reason to believe the Rabbi. There were seventy-nine
49 Ibid., 23.
50 Not all Eastern immigrants were Orthodox, of course, but there is a significant connection between the
groups, as we can judge from the membership lists of Orthodox organizations. Most of the leaders of such
groups were born abroad.
51 Höppner and Jahn, 23-5.
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