Rabbi Isaac Breuer (1883-1946) was a major figure in twentieth century Neo-Orthodoxy, following
n the footsteps of his maternal grandfather Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. Though he both trained and practised as a lawyer, it is as a religious and political personality that he was best known, being the first President of Poalei Agudat Yisrael.
Rabbi Breuer was also a noted thinker and author, whose deep
thought is well reflected in Concepts of Judaism, a selection of his
writings selected and compiled by Jacob S; Levinger. Although the Neo-Orthodoxy
movement had defined itself from the start largely as an opposition to the
German Reform movement, Rabbi Breuer already regarded the Reform movement of
his day as essentially the impotent and dying remnant of the Haskalah. For him,
the real enemy of Orthodoxy was both political Zionism and Religious Zionism,
which he considered especially dangerous because they possessed an authentic
Jewish instinct and impulse. The goals of the Zionists paralleled the goals of
his own Agudah organization in many areas ("reunification of land and
nation"), but without the stress which Agudah laid on adherence to halachah
and tradition. Indeed, he envisioned a Messianic Torah state in the land of
Israel, and could not abide the idea of "reunification of land and
nation" coming to pass through the agency of secular Zionist forces in the
form of a secular state.
This work is part of the Marvin N. Hirschhorn library, which
is housed in Beit Knesset Hanassi.
