Lazare Isidor

Lazare Isidor (French pronunciation: [lazaʁ izidɔʁ]; 1806–1888)[1] was a French rabbi who served as chief rabbi of the Israelite Central Consistory of France during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

An 1888 engraving of Isidor

Early career

Isidor served as chief rabbi of Paris from 1847 until 1867.[1]

During this period, he was a supporter of Jewish emancipation and the integration of his people into French society: he stated that "'we have shown that we were worthy of liberty, worthy of the title of citizen, and that it was possible to be at once a Jew and a Frenchman'".[2]

Chief Rabbi of France

Isidor was elected chief rabbi of France in 1867 and remained in the position until his death.[3]: 400  Isidor was succeeded by Zadoc Kahn, who had become chief rabbi of Paris following his election to the higher post.[4]

Following the 1871 annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War, France lost around forty separate rabbinates in the area, resulting in a large number of unemployed rabbis throughout the country. Isidor secured permission for the foundation of rabbinates across France to replace these missing communities: the new positions were combined with that of the hazzan due to how "unimportant" the towns were seen as being. However, most of these new rabbinates eventually decided to split the role of rabbi and hazzan again.[3]: 403–4 

Isidore was responsible for adapting the prayer in the memory of the dead which occurred at the start of Mincha on Yom Kippur. His traditional prayer was adopted by rabbis across France and "acquired exceptional importance".[3]: 418–9  Another widely used prayer of his was composed for funeral services.[3]: 420  Many of the prayers edited by Isidor were translated into French and departed from the original Hebrew texts.[3]: 423 

In 1882, he gave permission for Henry Joseph, an English businessman, to become chief rabbi of Argentina.[5]

Other work

In 1875, Isidor became president of Léon de Rosny's Société d'ethnographie (Ethnographic Society).[6]

References
  1. Duker, Abraham G. (1979). "Jewish Emancipation and the Polish Insurrection of 1863: Jan Czyński's Letter of 1862 to Ludwik Królikowski". Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research. 46/47: 93. doi:10.2307/3622458. ISSN 0065-6798. JSTOR 3622458. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  2. Lerner, L. Scott (2000). "The Narrating Architecture of Emancipation". Jewish Social Studies. 6 (3): 7–8. doi:10.2979/JSS.2000.6.3.1. ISSN 0021-6704. JSTOR 4467582. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  3. Debré, S. (1891). "The Jews of France". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 3 (3): 367–435. doi:10.2307/1450008. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1450008. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  4. Greenspoon, Leonard (November 2020). Jewish Bible Translations: Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress. University of Nebraska Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-8276-1857-2. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  5. Mirelman, Victor A. (1971). "A Note on Jewish Settlement in Argentina (1881-1892)". Jewish Social Studies. 33 (1): 9. ISSN 0021-6704. JSTOR 4466623. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  6. Staum, Martin (2004). "Nature and Nurture in French Ethnography and Anthropology, 1859-1914". Journal of the History of Ideas. 65 (3): 482. doi:10.1353/jhi.2005.0009. ISSN 0022-5037. JSTOR 3654142. S2CID 143537665.
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