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A history of the Jews of Salzburg by R. Adolf Altmann (1879–1944) rabbi, historian and philosopher. Born in Hunsdorf, Hungary, R. Altmann studied at the yeshivot of Hunsdorf and Pressburg, and graduated as doctor of philosophy from Berne University. An early follower of Herzl, he worked for the acceptance of religious Zionism in the face of hostility on the part of the Hungarian Orthodox rabbinate. He was a delegate to the First Mizrachi Congress in Pressburg, correspondent for Die Welt (1905), and editor of the Ungarische Wochenschrift (1904).
He served as rabbi in Salzburg (1907–1915) where he wrote the two-volume Geschichte der Juden in Stadt and Land Salzburg (1913, 1930), which is still the authoritative work on the subject, and in Merano. In World War I he served as senior chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian Army, receiving the Golden Cross of Merit; in witness to Jewish service in the war he collected testimonials from military commanders on the conduct of their Jewish soldiers. From 1920 to 1938 he served as chief rabbi–the last one–of Trier, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. The results of his historical research into the community’s origins were published in Das Frcheste Vorkommen der Juden in Deutschland; Juden in romischen Trier (1931), which threw new light on the subject, dating the settlement of Jews in Trier to the end of the 3rd and early 4th century C.E. He contributed the entry on the history of German Jews to the Jcdisches Lexikon (1927). He was a leading delegate to the Association of Jewish Communities (Preussischer Landesverband Jued. Gemeinden) and as prolific author and orator participated widely in Jewish cultural life in Germany. In 1938 he emigrated to Holland and met his death in Auschwitz in 1944 with his wife Malwine, their daughter Hilda van Mentz and family, and their son Dr. Wilhelm Altmann. He was survived by three sons: Professor Alexander Altmann, Dr. Erwin Altmann, and Dr. Manfred Altmann. |
