The Concerns of an Immigrant Rabbi: The Life and Sermons of Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz
The Concerns of an Immigrant Rabbi: The Life and Sermons of Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz
This chapter highlights the life of Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz, analyses the main issues discussed in his sermons, and offers a number of observations regarding the continuity and change in the content of his sermons. This discussion sheds additional light on the problems and concerns of Orthodox rabbis who emigrated to America at the turn of the century. Several factors motivated rabbis to leave eastern Europe for America. Economic difficulties, decreases in population of the Orthodox communities, and the consequent lack of opportunity for rabbis to advance to high rabbinical positions in Europe were key. As early as the mid-nineteenth century it was difficult to find a more substantial job in the rabbinate on either continent. Many Orthodox rabbis who went west during the mass migration were connected to the ethics-based musar movement in some way. The main themes and ideology of the musar movement greatly influenced Rabbi Sivitz, even though they are not widely expressed in his sermons.
Keywords: Moshe Shimon Sivitz, sermons, Orthodox rabbis, America, emigration, Orthodox communities, rabbinate, mass migration, musar movement
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