Adolf Jellinek

Who was Adolf Jellinek?

Adolf Jellinek was an Austrian rabbi and scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig, he became a preacher at the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna in 1856.

He was associated with the promoters of the New Learning within Judaism, and wrote on the history of the Kabbalah in the tradition of Western scholarship. Jellinek is also known for his work in German on Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, one of the earliest students of Kabbalah who was born in Spain in 1240. Jellinek's bibliographies were useful compilations, but his most important work lay in three other directions:

Midrashic. Jellinek published in the six parts of his Beth ha-Midrasch a large number of smaller Midrashim, ancient and medieval homilies and folklore records, which have been of much service in the revival of interest in Jewish apocalyptic literature. A translation of these collections of Jellinek into German was undertaken by August Wuensche, under the general title Aus Israels Lehrhalle.

Psychological. Before the study of ethnic psychology had become a science, Jellinek devoted attention to the subject. There is much keen analysis and original investigation in his two essays Der jüdische Stamm and Der jüdische Stamm in nicht-jüdischen Sprichwörtern. It is to Jellinek that we owe the oft-repeated comparison of the Jewish temperament to that of women in its quickness of perception, versatility and sensibility.