Moses (Moshe) Sachs (1800 – 5 July 1870) was a
Meshullach.
Life
Sachs was born in in the
Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Meiningen (; german: Sachsen-Meiningen ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia.
Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestin ...
. He studied under some of the leading
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 o ...
s of the time, among them were Rabbi
Akiva Eger, Rabbi
Jacob Lisser and
Chacham Sofer.
In 1830 he
immigrated to the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
and is considered the first German to do so in the 19th century. He settled in
Jerusalem and in 1832 married Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Zadok HaLevi Cruiz (considered by locals the "
Rothschild
Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...
of Jerusalem").
In 1835 he went to
Tunis as a Meshullach. There he met
Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
who was impressed by him and recommended that he meet with Baron
Salomon Mayer von Rothschild of
Vienna. Sachs convinced Rothschild and a group of other wealthy Jews to back a program for the settling of Jews as farmers in the Land of Israel under Austrian protection. With the help of
Archduke John of Austria
Archduke John of Austria (german: Erzherzog Johann Baptist Joseph Fabian Sebastian von Österreich; 20 January 1782 – 11 May 1859), a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, was an Austrian field marshal and imperial regent (''Reichsverwese ...
the plan was submitted to the Austrian government which in turn had consul Stürmer present it to the
Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman government refused and the plan failed.
Sachs remained in Europe until 1839. During this time he visited many communities in order to win support to the productivity plan and studied medicine and astronomy in
University of Munich for six months.
Sachs was opposed by the brothers
Akiba
Akiba may refer to:
Fintech
* Akiba (Fintech)
People
* Akiba (given name)
* Akiba (surname)
Entertainment
* Akiba, a character in the ''Metal Gear Solid'' series of video games
Other uses
* ''Akiba'' (subgenus), a subgenus of protozoa in ...
and
Hirsch Lehren Hirsch Lehren, also known as Tsebi Hirsch Lehren (April 1784, The Hague - September 1853, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Jewish merchant and community worker.
Lehren was prominent in the history of the Ḥaluḳḳah in the first half of the nineteenth cen ...
of bankers who controlled the fundraising system in Europe and the distribution of funds to the
Yishuv, the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel. They believed that the purpose of the Yishuv was hastening salvation by prayer and Torah study and thus found productivity dangerous.
In 1854 Sachs was a founding member of the first society for the settlement of the Land of Israel.
In 1860 he left again to Europe to collect contributions for the Batei Machse established by
Kollel Holland veDeutschland. He remain there for five years.
In 1865 he returned to Jerusalem. He was involved in various public affairs and covered the events of the Yishuv in local and European newspapers.
Sachs saw the foundation of
Mikveh Israel
Mikveh Israel ( he, מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, 'Hope of Israel') is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel ...
and died in 1870 in
Jerusalem.
References
*Gelber, N. (1937). Moses Sachs (in Hebrew). Sinai, 1, pp. 568–583.
*Eliav, M. (1968). Rabbi Moses Sachs's Travels in the Service of "Batei Machse" (in Hebrew). Sinai 62, pp. 172–188.
*Eliav, M. (1971). Love of Zion and the People of Holland and Deutschland (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: United Kibbutz Publishing, pp. 215–228.
*Gann, Christoph.
''Moses Sachs – ein jüdischer Pionier aus Dreißigacker
'' (1. Teil), in: Hennebergisch-Fränkischer Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch 2012, Kloster Veßra/Meiningen/Münnerstadt 2012, Hennebergisch-Fränkischer Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch 2012, Kloster Veßra/Meiningen/Münnerstadt 2012, S. 121–142.
{{Authority control
Jews in Ottoman Palestine
19th-century German Jews
1800 births
1870 deaths