Joseph Günzburg (Osip Gavrilovich Gintsburg, Осип Гаврилович Гинцбург (or ''Iosif-Evzel'', ''Иосиф-Евзель''); 1812 in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...

– 12 January 1878 in Paris) was a Russian financier and philanthropist who became a baron in 1874. He was the son of Gabriel Günzburg and the father of

Horace Günzburg Horace Günzburg (Goratsii Evzelevich Gintsburg, Гораций Евзелевич Гинцбург, (''Naftali-Gerts Evzelevich Gintsburg'') 8 February 1833 in Zvenigorodka, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire – 2 March 1909 in Saint Petersburg), ...

. Having acquired great wealth during the

Crimean war The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, Günzburg established a banking firm at

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. There he began to labor on behalf of the welfare of the

Jewish community Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. In November 1861, he was appointed by the Russian government member of the

rabbinical Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...

commission, the meetings of which lasted five months. He exerted himself to raise the standard of the education of the Jews, and to this effect he founded in 1863 with the permission of the Russian government the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews, of which he filled the office of president till his death. Owing to Günzburg's efforts, the regulations concerning the military service of the Jews were in 1874 made identical with those of the peoples of other creeds. He also instituted a fund for the

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah ( he, תלמוד תורה, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary educat ...

religious school of

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

, his father's native town. The Günzburgs were

ennobled Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

by the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1871, and Joseph received the title of ''

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

'' on 2 August 1874.

Bibliography

* Fuenn, ''Keneset Yisrael'', p. 460; * ''Archives Israélites'', 1878, p. 89 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunzburg, Joseph 1812 births 1878 deaths People from Vitebsk People from Vitebsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Jews from the Russian Empire Jewish bankers Günzburg family Bankers from the Russian Empire Russian Hebraists 19th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire Russian landowners Barons of the Russian Empire Hessian nobility