Shomrei ha-Dos Society

Shomrei ha-Dos (“Guardians of the Faith,” Heb., Shomrei ha-dat) was an Orthodox Jewish group in Hungary formed because of the so-called schism in Hungarian Jewry. The name was first used in 1867 when the leading Hungarian Orthodox rabbis Jeremiah Löw, Menachem Eisenstädter, and Abraham Schreiber (the Ketav Sofer) published their manifesto pitting Shomrei ha-Dos in opposition to Neolog Judaism, the Hungarian version of Reform Judaism. Despite their opposition to Neolog Judaism, the members of Shomrei ha-Dos were more neo-Orthodox or Modern Orthodox than outright traditionalist. Adhering to the ideas of Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer, the founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism, Shomrei ha-Dos believed that the Jewish community should live in harmony with the secular culture of the state and stated that Hungarian should be the language of Jews in that country. Shomrei ha-Dos existed until the beginning of the twentieth century, roughly until the Central Organization of Autonomous Orthodox Communities in Hungary was established in 1906.