Leopold Zunz. Ismar Schorsch
There was good reason for the society to take up the cause, if ever so carefully, for die deutsche Synagoge; worship had much greater resonance than Wissenschaft. In 1820 Zunz had been invited to preach in Leipzig at the dedication of its German worship service on Shmini Atseret. On October 3, at the end of the festival, an elated Zunz wrote Ehrenberg an upbeat report, whose rich details limn the scope and political import of liturgical reform as well as Zunz’s own religious posture. The nascent reform services in Hamburg, where the Verein had its only official branch, inspired the initiative in Leipzig, and the participation of four children from Hamburg who had come specifically for the dedication, highlighted the patrimony. The University of Leipzig accommodated the group with space on its premises. On Simhat Torah Joseph Wolf delivered the sermon, while Zunz led the German parts of the service, read the Torah, and accepted the honor of completing the annual public cycle of Torah reading with the final chapter of Deuteronomy (Hatan Torah). A Jew from Brody later expressed his delight with Zunz’s Torah reading, which Zunz told Ehrenberg he did with grammatical precision but no cantillation. Zunz also related that on Simhat Torah he observed the Hasidim from Shklov at their services auctioning off the recitation of biblical verses while “smoking, yelling, eating and singing like the barbarians in New Zealand.”
But Leipzig did more than nourish his contempt. The infectious promise of liturgical reform to advance the prospects of emancipation stirred his political imagination:
The effect of this never-before-seen celebration is indescribable. You can compare it to a storm, whose whirlwind erupts in one spot and then moves on taking everything with it. Polish Jews, [along with] others either pious, or enlightened, or from abroad, and even Christians, etc.—none were unsatisfied—and word thereof is going out to all parts of Germany with yesterday’s or today’s mail. Both dedicatory sermons will be printed. Thus far those who attended our services came from 30 cities, including Lissa, Brody, Bucharest, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Elberfeld, Cracow, Cassel, Florence, Amsterdam and Frankfurt on the Main. I hope the institution will last and exert no small influence on Breslau, where a synagogue is now being built. Indeed, a Jew from Fürth intends to gather signatures for a German synagogue…. Aren’t there men in Braunschweig who could advocate the creation of a reformed worship service? Precisely at this moment, we should be collecting signatures in Seesen, Wolfenbüttel, Blankenburg and Gandersheim. In fact, I will argue that we do exactly that so that the German Bundestag might realize just who and how many favor a German synagogue. We should not be deterred by their small number, for I hope their stature will outweigh the number.119
In other words, it was vital that German officialdom be made aware of the religious transformation underway. The German synagogue proved not only that Judaism was rapidly adapting itself to German modes of belief and practice but also that Jews were amply ready to assume the responsibilities of citizenship. Zunz’s Leipzig sermon on “The Call to Proceed” propounded the need to shift away from rabbis to prophets, from law to morality, from external piety to inwardness, and from particularism to universalism. What God demands of us is deeds not words, dignity and decorum rather than wild outbursts, and love of God and our fellow human: “For whenever we have wrought something great or written something beautiful, it was neither passivity nor laziness, neither sensuousness nor selfishness that created it, but rather intellectual energy, rational thought and unlimited trust in God.”120 Zunz’s tight-knit sermon displayed that he was no stranger to the genre. His language was measured, his sentences cadenced, and his ideas sharply articulated. The palpable sincerity of his conviction, moreover, animated the whole.
Toward the end of August 1821, Zunz, in need of a break, went with Gans and Rubo to Hamburg, ostensibly on Verein business. The composition of the group prompted Gans to entertain Moser later with the following sardonic quip: “Three Jewish doctors on a journey squeezed into a coach, each with four letters to his name, and not an M.D. among them!”121 Though Zunz was particularly glum and uncommunicative during the two-day journey, his invigorating month-long stay firmed up his resolve to work for the welfare of German Jewry. Shortly after his arrival and the warm reception accorded him, he shared with Adelheid, still only his fiancée, his excitement at being part of a movement that extended far beyond Berlin:
I am pressed from all sides to preach here at least once. But I have not decided yet…. I am fascinated here by the convergence of the German worship service with matters pertaining to the Jews. Berlin, Breslau, Vienna, Leipzig and southern Germany are all in constant contact with the business life here. And the activity ignited by the god Mercury serves the interests of Jehovah. But the greatest plus is that this place has a few proactive, eager, knowledgeable and determined men, who do not wait till they are pushed, but act on their own with energy. I am firmly convinced that until the present sclerotic and cowardly generation dies out and one born in freedom arises, which will fight for its own salvation, that is for human rights and knowledge, no good will emanate from the Jews themselves. I hope upon my return to Berlin to be active in behalf of the Jews.
At this juncture in his letter, Zunz broke into a romantic mode. The presence of a soul mate imbued him with the confidence to endure the hardships attendant to his mission, even as it impelled him to be forthright: “Do not wonder, my devoted partner [Treueste], that in my letters I touch upon this topic so often. My whole life is a text to this unending subject, although the world has not always known or fathomed it. Here where I am both aroused to new action and feel a sense of satisfaction in conversing with you, I am touched with longing for you and the wish to be worthy of you, so that you might share in the earnestness of my views and strivings. It seems to me that the more fervently I work for the good of my brothers, the deeper I long for you. And even though I am inclined to laugh at this gush of emotion, I still feel that it did me some good.”122
Unfortunately, Zunz’s tenure as one of the two official preachers of the Beer Temple lasted no longer than one year. By September 12, 1822, he had submitted his resignation. But a few months earlier, the temple had been the site of his marriage to Adelheid.123 As his relationship with the temple leadership deteriorated, charges and countercharges filled the air. A special committee of nine members to resolve the differences submitted its report on September 9. Of the four charges against Zunz, the committee found merit in only one, that Zunz had improperly departed from the synagogue at the moment services for Tisha be-Av were about to begin: “Granted that the divine [Gottesgelehrter] should heed his inner conviction, it is expected that he also take into account what the moment calls for.” Obviously at this point in his life, Zunz had discarded the observance of the twenty-five-hour summer fast commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem’s two temples.124
In contrast, the committee made short shrift of the charges brought by Zunz—that the leadership of the temple was responsible for its decline, that it had violated Zunz’s right as a preacher, and that after his jeremiad on the grave condition of the temple, the leadership encouraged its disaffected membership to call for his removal, without the courtesy of a hearing. The special committee, however, did not entirely exonerate the leadership. Much of the friction and misunderstanding so rife in this clash could have been avoided if the leadership had taken the time to draft a set of bylaws governing the operation of the temple, and its future welfare demanded that it do so immediately. As for Zunz, the committee instructed him henceforth to abide by the instruction of the temple’s official leadership.125
The outcome only exacerbated Zunz’s irascible disposition. After a letter of protest to the special committee on September 11, he submitted his resignation to the temple board the following day.126 A few weeks before, Zunz had summarized for his friend Isak Noa Mannheimer, destined to replace him briefly in Berlin and then go on to an illustrious career in Vienna, his own abbreviated misadventure in Berlin:
Since September 1821, I have not given a sermon in which I have not intermingled clear and vague references to the improvement of the Temple. I also personally brought to people’s attention inappropriate practices and opposed their misconstrued and unauthorized liturgical regulations, etc. I drafted for them statutes, suggested [in conjunction with Isaac Levin Auerbach (the other preacher and a founding member of the Verein)] changes in the prayers. Nothing helped. Thus on August 17, I gave a sermon on the downfall of the Temple, which did not spare the board and set forth irreligion, vanity,