Marco Mortara (born at

Viadana Viadana may refer to: Surname * Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (c. 1560 – 1627), Italian composer, teacher, and Franciscan friar * Gilberto Viadana (born 1973), Italian figure skater Other * Viadana, Lombardy, a town in the province of Mantua, Lom ...

, 7 May 1815; died at

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

, 2 February 1894) was an Italian

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and scholar. Having graduated from the rabbinical college of

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

in 1836, he was called as rabbi to Mantua in 1842, and occupied this position until his death. He was very conservative in his religious views and opposed the abolition of the second day of the holy days which had been planned by some of the liberal members of his congregation ( Eleazar Horowitz, Responsa, No. 131, Vienna, 1870). As a true disciple of

Samuel David Luzzatto Samuel David Luzzatto ( he, שמואל דוד לוצאטו, ; 22 August 1800 – 30 September 1865), also known by the Hebrew acronym Shadal (), was an Italian Jewish scholar, poet, and a member of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. Early ...

he was a strong opponent of Cabala, which involved him in a heated controversy with

Elijah Benamozegh Elijah Benamozegh, sometimes Elia or Eliyahu, (born 1823; died 6 February 1900) was an Italian Sephardic Orthodox rabbi and renowned Kabbalist, highly respected in his day as one of Italy's most eminent Jewish scholars. He served for half a cen ...

. In his will he wrote his epitaph, containing merely biographical data, and expressed the wish that no sermon should be preached at his funeral and no eulogy published in the papers. Besides many sermons and articles, published in German, Hebrew, French, and Italian periodicals, he wrote textbooks for religious instruction, essays on religious questions of the day, apologetic essays, and bibliographical works, among which is of special importance a list of all names pertaining to Jewish history in Italy under the title ''Mazkeret Ḥakme Italiya: Indice Alfabetico dei Rabbini e Scrittori Israeliti di Cose Giudaiche in Italia'', Padua, 1887. He is the father of Italian justice and senator Lodovico Mortara and grandfather of statistician Giorgio Mortara.

References

*'' Vessillo Israelitico'', 1894, pp. 59–62 *''Corriere Israelitico'', xxii. 217, 224–226 *A list of Mortara's works, ''Elenco degli Scritti del R. Marco Mortara'', is given in '' Vessillo Israelitico'', 1886, pp. 188–190, and in

Chaim David Lippe Chaim David Lippe (December 22, 1823, at Stanisławów, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria – August 26, 1900, at Vienna) was an Austrian Jewish publisher and bibliographer. For some time he was cantor and instructor in religion at Eperies, Hunga ...

's ''Bibliographisches Lexicon'', s.v.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mortara, Marco 1815 births 1894 deaths 19th-century Italian rabbis