MOYSHE ERENTEYL (MORITZ EHRENTHEIL)

MOYSHE ERENTEYL (MORITZ EHRENTHEIL) (1825-December 27, 1894)

            He was born in Szilágynagyfalu, Hungary.  He was a head school teacher in Jászberény.  He edited the monthlies Jüdische Volkskunde (Jewish folklore) in Arad and Das traditionelle Judentum (Traditional Judaism) in Budapest—both in German.  He wrote scholarly and pedagogical treatments in a variety of periodicals under such pen names as Dr. Freund (Dr. Friend).  He penned a Hebrew-Hungarian[-German] dictionary for the Tanakh (1868) [entitled Ḥut hameshulash (The eternal triangle)], dictionary to the Tanakh (1868), a Hungarian grammar, and pedagogical booklets under his Magyarized name Mór Erényi, as well as Judaic works in German, such as: Der Geist des Talmud (The spirit of the Talmud) (Budapest: Burian, 1888), 240 pp.; Rezeption und Orthodoxie (Reception and Orthodoxy) (Budapest: Burian, 1892), 88 pp.  In the 1870s he edited the weekly Shavet akhim (Tribe of brothers), in Judeo-German, organ of Orthodox Jewry in Hungary, published by Rabbi Yitskhok Raykh, president of the executive of the Israelite-Hungarian “Shomer hadat” (Guardian of the faith) society in Budapest.  Over a conflict between Raykh and Ehrentheil, Shevet akhim went under in its twelfth year, and Ehrentheil joined the publisher M. Burian and founded Naye yidishe pester tsaytung (New Jewish Pest newspaper), “unaffiliated organ of politics and Jewish interests,” which came out two or three times each week.  Over the course of years, it engaged in a bitter competitive struggle with Di yidishe pester tsaytung (The Pest Jewish newspaper) of Miksa Szabolcsi, until in 1887 when the two newspapers combined under the name Algemeyne yidishe tsaytung (General Jewish newspaper), “organ for politics, business intercourse, and Jewish confessional interest,” but as the two editors belonged to the “Neologue Faction,” Orthodox readers turned aside from the newspaper.  In the interim, Szabolcsi had founded his own organ Egyenlőség (Equality) and withdrew from the editorial board, hiring in his stead Moyshe Dornbush who in 1891 founded his own newspaper which was fervently Orthodox.  The publisher M. Burian fired the heretic and Sabbath desecrator Ehrentheil and invited in his place the radical Orthodox Leopold Grosberg.  In the newspaper Ehrentheil wrote a series of articles which later appeared in book form as Toldes anshe moyfes (History of exemplary men), “detailed biographies of the most outstanding and meritorious men in Judaism from the time of the great Babylonian sages until the middle of the previous century” (Budapest: Moritz Burian, 1885), 404 pp.—analogous to this was his book in German, Juedische Charakterbilder, enthaltend die ausfuehrlichen Biografien von Rabbi Jonathan Eibenschuetz (Images of Jewish character, containing the detailed biographies of Rabbi Jonathan Eibenschuetz [et al.]), 156 pp.  And, a second series of articles entitled “Di frantsezishe revolutsyon” (The French Revolution) also appeared in book form (Pest, 1889).

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2, with a bibliography.

Yankev Kahan and Leyb Vaserman

Translator’s note. The foregoing is a combination of the biography of Ehrentheil in vol. 6 by Yankev Kahan and that of Leyb Vaserman in vol. 7.  It is completely unclear why there are two biographies (in different places) in the Leksikon. (JAF)