Manfred Erich Swarsensky (October 22, 1906 in Marienfließ in Pomerania – November 10, 1981 in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

) was a German-American rabbi.

Biography

Born in Marienfließ in Pomerania (renamed Marianowo after 1945),

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

, Swarsensky gained a PhD from the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin in 1929. He became a liberal Rabbi with ''Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin'', the Jewish unity congregation comprising the bulk of Jewish faithful in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and combining Jews of mainstream (also called liberal, in today's English terminology 'conservative'),

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

and

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

affiliation. In 1938 the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

burned his preferred synagogue on Prinzregentenstraße and imprisoned him in

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

. In February 1940 Swarsensky emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. For the next thirty-six years he worked as Rabbi for Temple Beth El, a Reform synagogue in

. He married Ida Weiner (January 22, 1918 – June 15, 2010) in 1952 and had two children. Swarsensky died of cancer at the

University of Wisconsin Hospital UW Health University Hospital (UW Health, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics or UWHC) is a 515-bed academic regional referral center with 127 outpatient clinics, located on the western edge of the University of Wisconsin–Madison's camp ...

on November 10, 1981. The Manfred E. Swarsensky Humanitarian Service Award, awarded for outstanding voluntary contributions on behalf of race relations, women's health, conservation or public service, is named after him and is awarded annually by the Rotary Club of Madison, of which Rabbi Swarsensky was a member. Rabbi Swarsensky also served as Chair of Jewish Learning while teaching at

Edgewood College Edgewood College is a private Dominican college in Madison, Wisconsin. The college occupies a campus overlooking the shores of Lake Wingra. History The Edgewood College property was bought in 1855 by Mr. Ashmead from Governor Leonard J. Farw ...

Biography

* ''Mensch: Biography and Writings of Manfred Eric Swarsensky'', Marvin Zolot, Edgewood College Press, 2009

References

External links

Guide to the Manfred Swarsensky Collection
at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

Manfred Swarsenksy
Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust,

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

1906 births 1981 deaths 20th-century German rabbis American Conservative rabbis Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States People from Madison, Wisconsin People from the Province of Pomerania 20th-century American rabbis Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums alumni {{Germany-rabbi-stub