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240 pages

English

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Revealing self-portrayal of a provocative and influential German-American rabbi

Joachim Prinz (1902–1988) was one of the most extraordinary and innovative figures in modern Jewish history. Never one for conformity, Prinz developed and modeled a new rabbinical role that set him apart from his colleagues in Weimar Germany. Provocative, strikingly informal and determinedly anti-establishment, he repeatedly stirred up controversy. During the Hitler years, Prinz strove to preserve the self-respect and dignity of a Jewish community that was vilified on a daily basis by Nazi propaganda. After immigrating to the United States in 1937, he soon became a prominent rabbi in New Jersey, drawing thousands to his unpredictable sermons. Prinz's autobiography, superbly introduced and annotated by Michael A. Meyer, offers a fascinating glimpse into the life and personality of this unconventional and influential rabbi.

Contents
Preface
Editor's Introduction

1. Childhood and Youth
Burkhardsdorf
Oppeln
Studies in Breslau and Berlin
2. Rabbi in Berlin
The Weimar Years
The Nazi Years
3. Newark, New Jersey

Appendix A. Chronology
Appendix B. Prinz's Speech at the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963
Appendix C. Books by Joachim Prinz
Index

Sujets

Jewish Studies

Jewish

Religious

Holocaust

HISTORY

Histoire

Religión

Jews

The Holocaust

Judaism

Religion

Autobiography

Holocauste

Informations

Publié par	Indiana University Press
Date de parution	20 novembre 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780253028013
Langue	English

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Extrait

Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi
Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY—THE GERMAN AND EARLY AMERICAN YEARS

Edited and introduced by MICHAEL A. MEYER
Indiana University Press
BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
Published with the generous support of the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund of Temple B’nai Abraham, Livingston, New Jersey
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu
© 2008 by Michael A. Meyer All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prinz, Joachim, 1902-1988.
Joachim Prinz, rebellious rabbi : an autobiography : the German and early American years / edited and introduced by Michael A. Meyer. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-253-34939-2 (cloth) 1. Prinz, Joachim, 1902–1988. 2. Rabbis—Germany—Berlin—Biography. 3. Rabbis—United States—New Jersey—Newark—Biography. 4. Berlin (Germany)—Biography. 5. Newark (N.J.)—Biography. I. Meyer, Michael A. II. Title. BM755.P74A3 2008 296.8′342092—dc22 [B]
2007009435
1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09 08
CONTENTS
PREFACE
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
1 Childhood and Youth
BURKHARDSDORF
OPPELN
STUDIES IN BRESLAU AND BERLIN
2 Rabbi in Berlin
THE WEIMAR YEARS
THE NAZI YEARS
3 Newark, New Jersey
APPENDIX A. CHRONOLOGY
APPENDIX B. PRINZ’S SPEECH AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, AUGUST 28, 1963
APPENDIX C. BOOKS BY JOACHIM PRINZ
INDEX
PREFACE
W HEN, A FEW YEARS AGO , it was suggested to me that I look at a manuscript of an autobiography by Rabbi Joachim Prinz (1902–1988), my assumption was that, as is true of most such writing, it would be of interest to family and friends, perhaps belonged in an archives, but was unlikely to attract a larger readership. To my surprise, I found the life story of this provocative Liberal and Zionist rabbi in Germany and later in America extraordinarily fascinating, had difficulty putting it down, and soon resolved to prepare it for publication. My reading had convinced me that the Prinz story had broader significance for at least two reasons. First, Prinz had been one of the foremost spiritual leaders of German Jewry during its darkest years. His experiences shed light on that community’s struggle to maintain its self-respect when Nazi authorities were making every effort to extinguish it. From the pulpit and in the lecture hall, Prinz provided what can properly be called a form of spiritual resistance. Second, Joachim Prinz was a most extraordinary rabbi. He brought innovations to the Liberal rabbinate that in large measure still characterize it today. His uninhibited lifestyle, a product of Weimar culture, broke clerical taboos to the point where he was discharged from rabbinical duties, and his candid description of his sex life is astounding. Finally, his commitment to universal values led him to become a leader of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, a friend and co-worker of Martin Luther King, Jr. Thus Prinz’s autobiography possesses attraction not only for the members of Temple B’nai Abraham, which he served for nearly forty years, first in Newark and then in Livingston, New Jersey, many of whom still remember him fondly. Rather, his recollections will likewise draw in students of modern Jewish history and of Nazi Germany, as well as general readers interested in the human struggle for spiritual self-assertion in the face of unprecedented oppression.
The process of preparing the manuscript for publication took somewhat longer than anticipated, requiring careful editing of a dictated and probably never reviewed text to correct spelling and syntactical errors and to eliminate repetition. It was also necessary to check all the historical references that could be located and supply explanatory notes relating to persons and events. Obvious factual errors that seemed revealing have been corrected in the notes but are left standing in the text. In general, I have kept the oral style of the original with its immediacy and impact and made the notes as brief as possible in order not to impede the reader.
Prinz dictated this autobiography to his secretary around 1977, probably very shortly after his retirement from the rabbinate of Temple B’nai Abraham. He began the story with his birth in 1902 and carried it forward to the death of his mentor and idol, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, in 1949. Regrettably, Prinz did not continue the account further, into his career as a prominent leader of American Judaism, specifically to his roles as president of the American Jewish Congress and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Nor does the autobiography include his relationship with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Prinz’s own dramatic speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. However, as Prinz indicated in his remarks on that occasion, his work on behalf of African Americans rested upon his experience as a rabbi in Nazi Germany, which forms the central chapter of his autobiography.

I should like to express my gratitude, first and foremost, to Ina Maria Remus, who served as my research assistant, locating Prinz’s contributions to various periodicals, tracking down obscure references, and helping with the task of editing. I am grateful to Rabbi Jonathan Prinz and Deborah Prinz Neher, custodians of the Joachim Prinz estate, for allowing me to publish their father’s autobiography without editorial restrictions. The current rabbi of Temple B’nai Abraham, my student and friend Clifford Kulwin, has been most helpful in facilitating the publication project. In addition to Jonathan and Deborah Prinz, the following family members and friends of Joachim Prinz were kind enough to submit to interviews: Muriel Bloom, Lucie Prinz, Jo Seelman, Gerda Schultz, and Joachim Silberman. I am grateful to the anonymous readers selected by Indiana University Press for their helpful suggestions and to its editors for their courtesy and effi ciency in bringing the manuscript to publication. My research was facilitated in various ways by Irene Awret, Jacob Borut, David J. Goldberg, Katrin Janson, Robin Judd, Peter Klein, Ann Millin, Rachel Nierenberg Pasternak, Anna Ornstein, Eli Prinz, Carl Rheins, Monika Richarz, Jean Rosensaft, Peter Rubinstein, Michael Stanislawski, Yitzhak Steiner, and Robert Williams. I would also like to express thanks to the staffs of the Leo Baeck Institute and the Ratner Archives of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York; the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati; the Yad Vashem and Zionist Archives in Jerusalem; the Weizmann Archives in Re-hovot; the Stiftung Neue Synagoge-Centrum Judaicum Archives in Berlin; the archives of Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston; and the Jewish Historical Society of Metrowest in Whippany, New Jersey. Without the assistance of these individuals and institutions, it would not have been possible to place Prinz’s account of himself against the backdrop of his actual life and the times in which he lived.
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
A UTOBIOGRAPHY, ITS STUDENTS agree, is a problematic genre of literature. One cannot expect it to be a balanced and wholly accurate representation. Remembering and forgetting are determined not only by temporal distance from the events described, but also by psychological factors that often unconsciously push certain recollections into the foreground and bury others. Autobiographers are explorers of the self, but they are also its fashioners. They configure the tale of their personal development and character in a manner that is both most easily acceptable to themselves and that presents the self-image that they wish to convey to succeeding generations of their family or to a larger readership. The process begins before the text is produced. Frequently told tales are reshaped, embellished, and become exemplary for the life even as others are suppressed. In addition, literary motives play their role as the autobiographer seeks to create a coherent and intrinsically interesting narrative, omitting distractions, limiting qualifications, exaggerating importance. As one scholar of the subject has put it, “The self that is the center of all autobiographical narratives is necessarily a fictive structure.” 1 But at the same time, as another scholar reminds us, “Even if what they [the authors] tell us is not factually true, or only partly true, it always is true evidence of their personalities.” 2 In a sense, the writing of autobiography is a kind of performance, a dramatization of the writer’s life for the readers’ entertainment. Like a film or play, its success depends on its holding the interest of those exposed to it. Not surprisingly, autob