Frankel, Zacharias

Frankel, Zacharias a Jewish theologian, was born at Prague, October 18, 1801. He studied in the University of Pesth, and received the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1831. In the spring of 1832 he was intrusted with the district-rabbinate of Leitmeritz, in Bohemia, and in the temple at Teplitz, his seat of office, the service received a new cast, owing to the German sermon which he was the first to introduce in the Bohemian synagogue. In 1836 he was called to Dresden as chief rabbi for Dresden and Leipsic. At Dresden, Frankel battled for justice at the bar of public opinion, and secured for the Jews the right of citizenship by his Die Eidesleistung der Juden in theologischer und historischer Bedeutung (Dresden, 1840; 2d ed. 1847), followed by Der gerichtliche Beweis nach mosaisch-talmudischen Rechte (Berlin, 1841), which promoted the cause of his Prussian co-religionists. In 1854 Frankel was called to Breslau to organize the Jewish theological seminary, whose director he became. He died at Breslau, February 13, 1875. In the Christian world he is known as the author of, Vorstudien zur Septuaginta (Leipsic, 1841): — Ueber den Einfluss der Pallstinischen Exegese auf die Alexandrinische Hermeneutik (ibid. 1851): — Ueber Paldstinische und Alexandrinische Schriftforschung (Breslau, 1854). Of other works we mention, Hodegetica in Mischnam Librosgue cum ea Conjunctos (in Hebrew, Leipsic, 1859): — Additamenta to the preceding work (also in Hebrew, ibid. 1865): — Grundlinien des mosaisch-talmudischen Eherechtes (Breslau, 1859): — Entwusf einer Geschichte der Literatur der nachtalmudischen Responsen (ibid. 1865): — Introductio in Talmud Hierosolymitanum (Hebrew, ibid. 1870): — Targum der Propheten (ibid. 1872). He also intended to publish a new edition of the Jerusalem-Talmud, with notes; of this, however, only two treatises, Berachoth and Peah, were printed (Vienna, 1874). In connection with other learned Jews, he published Zeitschrift fur die Religiosen Interessen des Judenthum (Berlin, 184446, 3 volumes); and in 1851 he commenced his Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, which is still continued by Gritz and Frankel. See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 1:294; Zuchold, Bibl. Theol.

1:374; Morals, Emninent Israelites of the 19th. Century (Philadelphia, 1880), page 81 sq. (B.P.)