Meyer Israel Bresselau was a founding member and chairman of the Hamburg Temple

Hamburg Temple

The Hamburg Temple was the synagogue of the Jewish reform movement in Hamburg from 1818 to 1938. It was the first reform synagogue in Germany....

, one of the first Jewish reform

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...

 congregations in Germany.

Bresselau earned his living as notary from 1811. He was among the first members of the New Israelite Temple Society, founded 1817. He was co-editor of the temple's prayer book Seder ha Avodah, which contained a German translation and German prayers along with the traditional Hebrew prayers. It was firmly opposed by orthodox rabbis for omissions in the prayer text. In defense of his work Bresselau wrote in 1819 Ueber die Gebete der Israeliten in der Landessprache ("About the Jewish Prayers in the National Language"). The same year he wrote a rhymed satire in Hebrew Ḥerev noqemet něqam běrît; this book was also written in defense of the position of the temple.

Literature

• Encyclopaedia Judaica, Bd. 4, Jerusalem, 1971. S. 233
• Andreas Brämer: Judentum und religiöse Reform. Der Hamburger Israelitische Tempel 1817-1938. Dölling und Galitz Verlag, Hamburg 2000 ISBN 3-933374-78-2
• Michael A. Meyer: Antwort auf die Moderne, Wien 1988.