Samson Raphael Hirsch (jan 1, 1808 – jan 1, 1888)

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Founder of Neo-Orthodoxy in Germany, arguing that strict observance and secular culture could coexist. His approach shaped modern Orthodoxy.

Hirsch becomes rabbi of a small separatist Orthodox congregation in Frankfurt at a time when German Jewry is moving rapidly toward Reform. He argues under the banner of Torah im Derech Eretz that full observance is compatible with, and even enriched by, engagement with European culture and secular knowledge. His writings recast the commandments as a system of symbolic education rather than inherited custom, aimed at Jews who need reasons rather than habit. He builds the intellectual foundation of modern Orthodoxy, which remains the dominant Western Orthodox posture today.

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