The Jews in Our Time

Bonaventura Mayer

1842

They [the hasidim] study Kabbalah and Talmud diligently and successfully, and consequently they have among them excellent Talmud scholars. They also comprise three groups, each of them under one chief rabbi. We shall describe just one group.

This rabbi, Israel, lives in the town of Risen in the province of Volhynia, six miles from Zhitomir. He is a…

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Creator Bio

Bonaventura Mayer

Late 18th Century–Mid-19th Century

Born in Galicia, Bonaventura Mayer converted to Christianity to become a professor of languages at the University of Vienna. He subsequently proselytized, traveling throughout Eastern Europe in 1825 and 1826. During that trip, he encountered the Hasidic rebbe Israel Friedman of Ruzhin, whom he discusses in his work Die Juden unserer Zeit, which also describes the conditions of the Jews whom he met. He actively opposed Reform Judaism, and was attacked in the Jewish periodical press.

Related Guide

Rabbinic Scholarship, 1750–1880

Despite the challenges of the early modern period, rabbinic scholarship flourished in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. 

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