Heinrich Zirndorf (May 7, 1829 – December 17, 1893) was a German poet, playwright, and rabbi.

Biography

Heinrich Zirndorf was born as Heymann Zirndorfer () in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1829. He received a private early education. His parents intended for him to pursue a commercial career, and for a short time he was employed as a clerk by a local business. His early studies of

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and English classics, however, inspired him to continue studying. At the age of nineteen, he relocated to Munich, where he attended the gymnasium until 1855. The following two years he spent in Vienna, where he worked as an assistant teacher and librarian in the city's Jewish school. He focused primarily on poetry during this period, composing some of his best verses. Notably, his tragedy in five acts, ''Kassandra'', was published in Vienna in 1856. In 1857, he secured the role of rabbi in Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus, Hungary. However, he soon resigned and moved to Frankfurt, where he made the acquaintance of the historian Isaac Marcus Jost. Zirndorf later chronicled these reminiscences in ''Isaak Markus Jost und Seine Freunde'' (1886). In 1860, Zirndorf published a collection of his poems in Leipzig. That September, he accepted an invitation to serve as a teacher in England. He spent thirteen years there, first in

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and Manchester, then in London. He returned to Germany in April 1873 as the rector of the Hebrew Teachers' Institute in Münster. Three years later, he accepted an offer to become the rabbi of the Congregation Beth-El in Detroit, Michigan. In 1884, Zirndorf assumed the position of a history professor at the

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in Cincinnati. Around this period, Zirndorf began contributing to ''Die Deborah'', eventually becoming its associate editor. He was appointed rabbi and preacher of the Ahabath Achim congregation in Cincinnati in 1889, a position he held until his death.

Selected publications

* * * * * * Translation of sketches previously published in ''Die Deborah''.

References

External links

Poetry by Zirndorf
at ''Deutsche Liebeslyrik'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Zirndorf, Heinrich 1829 births 1893 deaths 19th-century American rabbis 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German poets 19th-century German rabbis American people of German-Jewish descent German emigrants to the United States Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion faculty Jewish dramatists and playwrights Jewish poets People from Fürth