Hermann Leberecht Strack: Missions to and Defence of Jews

HERMANN LEBERECHT STRACK: MISSIONS TO AND DEFENCE OF JEWS

Throughout his scholarly career, H. L. Strack was deeply involved with Jews and Judaism. An eminent Orientalist, specialised in Hebrew, the Old Testament and Judaism of Tannaitic and Amoraic times, he, just as Delitzsch, combined a scholarly interest with a passion for missions to Jews. This was also his main impetus for studying Judaism.1 Having founded the Berlin Institutum Judaicum in 1883, leading it from 1886, he wrote a Hebrew grammar and an introduction to the Old Testa- ment, among other things, and edited Mishna tractates.2 A student of Delitzsch’s, Strack in many ways continued what the former had begun,3 Delitzsch meaning a great deal to the young Strack, both privately and as a teacher.4 His reputation in Jewish circles was predominantly positive, being recognized as leading among non-Jewish scholars in the Bible and Talmud, Semitic linguistics and Jewish history of literature, as well as being esteemed for a book on Yiddish grammar.5 A major contribution to Jewish scholarship was his photographic edition of the complete manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, published in 1912. Strack was appreciated for defending Judaism against anti-Semitism but was also criticised for his missions to Jews,6 or at least it is noted that his main motive for studying Judaism was missions to Jews.7 This rendered him the description “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” by Paulus

1 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judaicum in Berlin. Mit einer Anhang über das Institut Kirche und Judentum, 26. 2 For Strack’s biography, see Christof Dahm, “Strack, Hermann Leberecht”, in Biograﬁ sches-Bibliograﬁ sches Kirchenlexikon (1996). The most comprehensive discussion of Strack is Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judaicum in Berlin, and see this work passim for biographical notes. 3 Deines, Die Pharisäer. Ihr Verständnis im Spiegel der christlichen und jüdischen Forschung seit Wellhausen und Graetz, 255. 4 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judai- cum in Berlin, 21. 5 Levenson, “Missionary Protestants as Defenders and Detractors of Judaism: Franz Delitzsch and Hermann Strack”, 415–416. 6 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judai- cum in Berlin, 15. 7 Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. Strack, Hermann Leberecht; Jüdisches Lexikon, s.v. Strack, Hermann Leberecht. 240 part ii. salvation-historical exegesis and the jews

Meyer, a converted Jew, who himself accused Jews of ritual murder. It is true that Strack was at home in conservative Protestantism and missions to Jews; however, he also engaged in serious scholarly work, which was often motivated by his defence against anti-Semitism.8 With his extensive network of Jewish scholars, “there was scarcely any of the Jewish scholars, with whom he did not stand in connection”.9 The institute of Strack’s creation taught theoretical subjects from Hebrew to the history of synagogue worship, but also how to take care of proselytes,10 the latter aspect meeting with suspicion from both Jewish and Christian quarters.11 Strack is best-known for two handbooks that are directly linked to Judaism, for generations regarded as indispensable to exegetes, his “Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash” and the monumental rabbinical commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, the latter published together with Paul Billerbeck.12 Strack was only around for the publication of the fi rst volume in 1922, dying the same year, by which time he was professor and Konsistorialrat. The preface to the fi rst part states that Strack’s contribution was to outline the project and gather the materials. Billerbeck processed this material into its existing form, which was then inspected by Strack before publication. In the preface from 1928, however, Billerbeck clarifi es that Strack was not involved in the actual writing of the work, and he explicitly calls it “my commentary”.13 These circumstances make it diffi cult to ascertain which contributions are Strack’s and which are Billerbeck’s, and as for my interest in Strack’s attitudes towards the Jews, to what extent

8 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judaicum in Berlin, 51. Wiese, Wissenschaft des Judentums und protestantische Theologie im wilhelminischen Deutschland. Ein Schrei ins Leere?, 112. 9 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judaicum in Berlin, 16, quoting Wohlgemuth. 10 Clark, The Politics of Conversion. Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia 1728–1941, 245, 253. 11 Golling and von der Osten-Sacken, eds., Hermann L. Strack und das Institutum Judaicum in Berlin, 16–17. 12 Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1922–1961). 13 Preface to Volume 4 of Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. Discussing the authorship of the work, Gerhard Kittel stresses that “the only author is Paul Billerbeck”, Gerhard Kittel, “Grundsätzliches und Methodisches zu den Überset- zungen rabbinischer Texte”, Aggelos. Archiv für neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte und Kulturkunde 1, no. 1/2 (1925), 61 n. 1.