Hirsch

odology. His most important studies of his
last period were: The American Government
(1891); How to Study and Teach History
(1894); Jesus as a Teacher and the Making of
the New Testament (1895) ; Teaching the Lan-
guage-Arts (1896); Horace Mann and the Com-
mon School Revived in the United States
(1898); The Art of Study (1900); and History
of the University of Michigan (1906), posthu-
mously published. Hinsdale died at Atlanta,
Ga., in his sixty-fourth year. Although he had
never graduated from college, he received aca-
demic recognition from Williams College, Beth-
any College, Ohio State University, Hiram Col-
lege, and Ohio University.

[Hinsdale's letters and manuscripts were given to
Hiram College. For printed sources consult: Herbert
C. Andrews, Hinsdale Geneal. (1906) ; Hinsdale's Hist,
of the University of Mich. (1906), ed. by I. N. Dem-
mon; Samuel C. Derby, memoir in the "Old Northwest"
Geneal. Quart., Oct. 1901; Ohio Archceol. and Hist.
Quart., Jan. 1901; F. M. Green, Hiram Coll. and West-
ern Reserve Eclectic Inst. (1901) ; J. R. Angell, memoir
in Nat. Educ. Asso.: Jour, of Proc. and Addresses,
1901; Educ. Rev., Feb., Mar. 1901 ; Mich. Alumnus,
Jan. 1901; Detroit Free Press, Nov. 30, 1900.]

E.J.B.

HIRSCH, EMIL GUSTAV (May 22, 1851-
Jan. 7, 1923), rabbi, scholar, civic leader, was
the youngest child of Samuel Hirsch, chief rabbi
of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, and Louise
(Michols) Hirsch. His father, whose influence
on his thinking was always evident, was a Jew-
ish scholar of great attainments, with deep philo-
sophic interests. When Hirsch was fifteen years
old, his father accepted a call from a Jewish con-
gregation in Philadelphia which transplanted the
family to the United States. In Philadelphia,
Hirsch studied both at the Episcopal Academy
and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he
graduated in 1872. From 1872 to 1876 he studied
at the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Ju-
dentums at Berlin, and also at the universities
of Berlin and Leipzig. He was greatly inspired
as well as instructed by such masters of Jewish
lore as Abraham Geiger, Moritz Lazarus, and
Herman Steinthal. Returning to America, he
preached for a short time in Philadelphia, then
at Har Sinai Congregation, Baltimore (1877-
78), and at Congregation Adath Israel, Louis-
ville, Ky. (1878-80). During his ministry in
Louisville, in 1878, he married Mathilda Ein-
horn, the daughter of Rabbi David Einhorn
[q.v.]. In the year 1880 he was called to Chicago
Sinai Congregation, left vacant by the resigna-
tion of Kaufman Kohler [g.z>.], his brother-in-
law.

He was much sought as lecturer, orator,
champion and advocate of worthy causes then
unpopular. His power over audiences came not

Hirsch

through mere oratory, but from a strong con-
tagious conviction, a keen intellectual analysis
of the issues involved, and a mastery of the sub-
ject. Sinai pulpit attracted Jews and non-Jews,
and opponents as well as proponents of the
varied humanitarian causes advocated. He was
equally forcible as a writer and editor. He was
editor of the Zeitgeist (Milwaukee), 1880-83;
of the Jewish Reformer (New York), 1886; and
of the Reform Advocate from 1891 until his
death in 1923.

As a Jew, Hirsch was known to be extremely
liberal. He swept aside forms and ceremonies
which he felt had outlived their usefulness. He
was the first to have only a Sunday service in
the Synagogue, permitting the traditional Jew-
ish sabbath to be unobserved. He had little sym-
pathy with the racial and national interpretation
of Jewish life and philosophy, insisting that
Jews were a religious people—not a race or na-
tion. He therefore opposed vigorously the Zion-
ist movement, though there was much in its cul-
tural program with which he might have been in
complete harmony. He was one of the leading
spirits in organizing the Associated Jewish
Charities of Chicago; he advocated and inspired
the Home Finding Society, insisting on "or-
phans in homes" rather than "orphan homes."
When during the last two decades of the nine-
teenth century there was a great influx of immi-
grants from Eastern Europe, he saw the need
for and organized the Jewish Training School
(manual training), and supported it until educa-
tors in general caught the vision and it was
made part of the public school system. What
others had done toward socializing the Church,
Hirsch not only did for the Synagogue, but also
pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that while
Christianity began as a religion of personal sal-
vation, the prophets of Judaism always voiced
a social message. In 1888 he was a member of
the Board of the Chicago Public Library and
later became its president; he was a member of
the State Board of Charities. During the
World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, he was
one of the outstanding leaders of the Parliament
of Religions. In 1896 he served as a presiden-
tial elector. Frequently he served on boards of
arbitration in labor disputes.

In 1892 he was appointed to the chair of rab-
binic literature and philosophy at the University
of Chicago, being one of the learned group of
research scholars that William Rainey Harper
[g.t;.], the first president of the University, gath-
ered about him. He received numerous hon-
orary degrees. He was editor of the Biblical
Department for the last ten volumes of the Jew-

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