Akiva Joseph Schlesinger

Born in Pressburg (present-day Bratislava) and educated in Moravia, Akiva Joseph Schlesinger developed into an uncompromising foe of religious reform. His Lev ha-Ivri, in the form of an extended commentary on the last will and testament of his teacher Moses Sofer, was a passionate attack against any concession to the forces of modernity. Schlesinger advocated staunch pride in traditional Jewish culture, extending his hostility to all aspects of even modern Orthodox practices. A controversial figure, Schlesinger immigrated to Palestine in 1870, after having served as a judge and yeshiva lecturer in Hungary and Galicia. In the Land of Israel he advocated for a traditionalist protostate within Ottoman Palestine. When, in 1875, one of his pamphlets defended even such ancient practices as polygamy in the future settlement in the Land of Israel, he was denounced, banned, and marginalized. His efforts were instrumental in founding some of the earliest Jewish settlements of the late nineteenth century.