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Moses Schorr, Polish: Mojżesz Schorr (May 10, 1874 – July 8, 1941) was a rabbi, Polish history, politician, Bible scholar, Assyriology and Oriental studies. Schorr was an expert on the history of the Jews in Poland. He was the first Jewish researcher of Polish archives, historical sources, and Pinkes. The president of the 13th district B'nai B'rith Poland, he was a humanist and modern rabbi who ministered the central synagogue of Poland during its last years before the The Holocaust.
Schorr was the first historian to undertake the systematic study of Jewish history in Poland, and Galicia in particular. He made discoveries after finding and translating Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite legislative annals. As a scholar of the jurisprudence and civilizations of the Ancient Middle East, Schorr was a legal philosopher and sociologist of Ancient Middle Eastern societies. Schorr was appointed to the Polish Senate by Polish president Ignacy Mościcki (1926–1939). Schorr did not belong to any political party, although he was inclined to Zionism. He was active in the social, public, and religious life of Polish Jews, and was often chosen by them to head public organisations and represent Polish Jewry to Polish and international powers, though he never sought the role for himself.
In 1898 Schorr attained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Medieval Studies at Lwów University. In spring 1900 he received the diploma of rabbi in Vienna, being among the first dozen graduates of Rothschild's seminary.
... For a long time I have not written to you of my old intentions to continue studying aiming at a dozent position. Besides, that "spirit" of semitology ... has not left me for a moment, haunting me as a shadow at every step. I have not lost contact with orientalistics, not for a bit. I have used every free minute to get acquainted with the ever growing literature, but unfortunately these free moments are quite rare. Professional work takes a lot of my time and causes a painful conflict between a forced, often mechanical work which I lack internal vocation for, and the results of my oriental studies ... On one hand, I do not want to be a charlatan in the profession, I even know that I have a certain mission as the religion teacher in Galicia and could even attain the "laurels" of the reformer in this subject. But I lack this specific ambition or enthusiasm. On the other hand, I am becoming convinced that I would have to study at least a year at the university (Berlin or Leipzig) so that I could independently work with Assyriology here. I have to admit for a moment that I have become a personality here, and everywhere they try to involve me in a friendly, humanitarian and scientific life ... and every day the circle of my "social virtues" widens itself — popular meetings, ceremonial speeches, committees, collectives etc., etc., — all this distracts me from my work, as I see myself suddenly thrown into the whirl of life when I would like to remain still unknown among my co-confessors. As an unripened apple I am plucked from the tree and I still miss my tree — knowledge. As for the altruistic impulses, I think that I still have enough time to realize them ... Lviv, January, 1901
Schorr corresponded with a number of intellectuals of that time, including Ludwig Gumplowicz, to whom he wrote at least 46 letters, and Simon Dubnow in Odessa. His correspondence with Dubnow has not been studied yet. Schorr's letters to Gumplowicz were published by R. Żebrowski.
In 1904–1905 he headed the Toynbeehali, the Society for the promotion of education among Jews in Lwów. He was one of the founders and long-term members of Opieka ("Care"), a society to support Jewish Youth in the secondary schools. During his stay in Lwów, Schorr was one of the founders and the first head of the "Society of the teachers of Moses religion of the people's secondary schools of Galicia". He led the first teachers' congress in 1904 in Lwów. He was a member of the board of the Jewish Community Library in Lwów from its inception, and later was its head.
There is no need to stress how strong an impression I got from the wonderful views of Swiss nature. I will stay here in Basel for 14 days for the whole duration of the 7th Zionist Congress, which is going to start on Thursday. Already today there are several hundred guests, most from Russia, among them the outstanding Jewish figures, and many ladies, as well. Already today, the Congress seems to me to be the most powerful manifestation of Jewish solidarity around the world. During the entire course of Jewish history, there was no such movement that would so deeply enter the consciousness of all the Jews with such an enthusiasm. But already nowadays various groups with different tendencies are being formed, away from the main fundamental idea.
Schorr took part in the conference but did not make any public speeches. Regarding the Zionist movement, he wrote:
As for the Zionist movement ... I am noting in advance, that in my opinion the historical proofs can not be decisive for the present. After all, Professor Winkler proved that the Jews had never been to Egypt but does this mean that the Jewish religion, that is based on the fact of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and its consequences, should disappear from history?
Żebrowski presumes that Schorr's participation in the Congress was perhaps one of the reasons that a rich merchant, a banker and fervent Zionist, chose Schorr as a husband for his daughter Tamara. They were married in the synagogue of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) on 31 October 1905.
In 1917-1918 he headed the Jewish Rescue Committee in Lwów, and from 1916 on he was a member of the central committee to help the Jewish orphans in the city. The Society of Jewish National and Secondary school, which was established at the beginning of 1919, chose him its first head, and in 1920 entitled him a merited member of the society.
In 1924 he became the head of the State Examination Committee for Jewish teachers of religion and Judaic subjects in secondary schools, and a member of the Ministerial Commission for the evaluation of school handbooks in the field of Judaica.
In 1933-1934 he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 1935 a member of the Finnish Oriental Society in Helsinki. In 1937 Schorr received the title of merited doctor from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
From 1921 Schorr was the president of the Lwów branch of B'nai B'rith in Galicia, part of the 12th district of B'nai B'rith Austria.
In 1922 Schorr was elected the vice president of the Polish district, while the president was lawyer Dr Adolf Ader from Kraków. From 1924 he was the president of the lodge Braterstwo ("Brotherhood") in Warsaw. This lodge numbered 85 members, including 32 merchants, 14 physicians, 13 engineers, eight lawyers, eight industrialists, six bankers, one writer, three senators (Moses Koerner, Schorr, and banker Rafael Szereszowski), one deputy (lawyer Dr Apolinary Hartgas) and two professors — Schorr and his close colleague, historian and friend Meir Balaban. The lodge reached its highest membership in 1931, when it had 130 members. After Schorr's resignation from its presidency, his role was taken over by Meir Balaban and consequently the lodge was headed by lawyer Maurycy Edelman, merchant Maurycy Meyzel, Seminary director Meir Tauber and lawyer Ignacy Bamberg.
The headquarters of Warsaw Braterstwo lodge were located at Rymarska 8 street. In the years of his presidency, Schorr organised many initiatives, undertakings, and cultural events, managed the meetings of so-called "speaking diaries" with the participation of renown personalities, writers and publicists. He took part in the creation of Auxilium Academicum Judaicum, an organisation formed for the erection of the Jewish Academic House in Warsaw. Schorr's brotherhood played a role in the founding of the Reform Institute of Judaic Sciences and the publishing society Menora that published the magazine Miesięcznik Żydowski (Jewish Monthly, 1930–1935), which was under the influence of B'nai B'rith. Through the Warsaw lodge, Schorr co-organised and supported the Relief Committee for the Jewish victims of the economic crisis, continuing his role in the religious affairs of the nomination of rabbis and Orthodox influences. While heading the Warsaw lodge, Schorr set up a special literary award for an outstanding writer of Jewish origin.
Rich members of the lodge played an important role in the charity activities of the lodge. Among them was a friend of Schorr, wood merchant Horacy Heller, who assigned for social activities 20,000 dollars. Significant sums were donated by his colleagues, banker Szereszowski (one of two Jewish colleagues in the Polish Senate), Dr. Joseph Landau, industrialist Maurycy Raabe, and others. In the years 1937–1938, a violent anti-Masonic campaign took place in Poland that led to the special decree of 1938 that dissolved any sort of free Masonic societies, including B'nai B'rith.
Moses Schorr performed the functions of vice president of the B'nai B'rith Lodge "Solidaność" (Solidarity) in Kraków. There are dozens of letters written by Schorr preserved in the B'nai B'rith collection of the State Archives in that city. During his presidency Schorr corresponded with a number of B'nai B'rith officials, including the Secretary of the Great Conventional Lodge in Chicago. Polish historian Dr Bogusława Czajecka delivered a paper "Moses Schorr as social activist in the light of B'nai B'rith documents (1922–1938)" during the scientific session on Schorr at the Polish Academy of Arts in Kraków in 1993.
Schorr's views on B'nai B'rith's goals and their practical application in terms of social activities are expressed in his work "Ideals of the Order B'nai B'rith and their Application Towards Real Life Conditions." Schorr describes B'nai B'rith as follows:
... The union of B'nai B'rith, as an international organization (...) is characterized by two fundamental principles: the idea of solidarity of all the Jews in the entire world (...), the idea of universalism of humanity, the brotherhood of all the peoples and nations (...). These two ideas I consider for the highest goal of our spiritual and intellectual program ...
Schorr's initiative helped with the creation of the Lodge "Montefiory" in Łódź, then the second largest Jewish urban community in Poland, with 222,497 Jews. In 1928 lodges "Montefiore" and "Braterstwo" took up the discussion concerning the official name of the organisation, arguing between B'nai B'riss and B'nei B'rith formulations. Schorr's suggestion "...taking into consideration the scientific and practical views, the name of the order should be written "B’nei B’rith" was adopted unanimously.
Schorr authored an appeal of the information bureau of the lodge "Braterstwo" about the situation of the Jews in Germany and other countries after 1933. Schorr was a member of the committee which managed the bureau. His goal in the activity of B'nai B'rith was to unify the principle of national solidarity among the Jews with the ideas of universalism.
Schorr concentrated mainly on scientific work, teaching, and social activities, rather than politics, but in 1935, the president of Poland Ignacy Mościcki named him Senator in the parliament. In his parliamentary speeches, along with articles in the Jewish press, such as Nasz Przegląd and Chwila, Schorr expressed his concern about the growth of antisemitism in Poland and the passive conduct of the authorities in this regard. He led the Jewish immigration and colonial committee, which aimed to make possible the Jewish immigration from Poland to countries other than Palestine. He participated in the Évian Conference in France on the problem faced by 500,000 Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria with the advent of the Nazi Germany and the Anschluss of Austria in 1938. The Évian Conference, held in Évian-les-Bains on the French shore of Lake Geneva, was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who invited European, American, and Australian delegates for an open discussion on organising the resettlement and immigration of those who experienced persecution on the basis of religion or race. Schorr was one of the key speakers in Évian and was highly involved as many Jews fled Germany for Poland. Golda Meir represented Palestine as an observer.
In Moscow he was held in Lubyanka Prison, in the same cell with the Bund activist Victor Alter, the poet Władysław Broniewski, and the Polish Senator of the National Party professor Stanisław Głąbiński. The Polish nationalist later recollected that became such close friends that they slept together on one bench. In the accounts of cell inmate Mrs. Wisia Wagner from 10 August 1943 we read:
Cell no. 21 was little. It housed 30 persons. Among them the main rabbi of Warsaw, renowned scientist, professor of Warsaw University Dr Moses Schorr, the activist of Bund Victor Alter, Senator professor Stanisław Gląbiński – the leader of Polish National Democrats and other personalities, who formed the intellectual elite of Poland. I spent a few days together with Professor Schorr. Despite his elderly age, he was constantly taken for torturing questioning and beaten. He was awakened in the middle of the night, led away for many hours and only in the morning returned. As he told us in the cell, he was accused of belonging to the protagonists of the bourgeois government. I spent 10 days with Prof Schorr and was astonished by his spiritual posture, despite the sufferings, he did not allow himself to get broken and after questioning was coming back calm and full of dignity. By chance he happened to share his cell with the leader of Endecja Polish. The representative of Jewish people and former antisemite went into so friendly a relationship that they slept on the same cell bed. After 10 days Prof Schorr was driven off from our prison and I have not seen him ever since.
I ask you Sir Minister about the entreatment of our Ambassador in the Vatican with the intervention, aimed to free Professor Schorr, arrested by the Bolshevik powers in Lwów. I consider the diplomatic means through Vatican to be the most advisable solution of this matter. After release, I ask you to direct Professor Schorr to France. Head of the Council of Ministers – Gen. Div. Sikorski.
On February 24, 1942, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported that the Soviet government had identified the location of Schorr's grave.
Jewish publisher A. Sztibel wrote the following lines about Schorr :
At every ship arriving in America from Europe, nearly every Polish Jew claims to be the leader of the Jews of Poland. These are the people, whose names I never heard, despite the fact that I was born and brought up in Poland. In the meanwhile professor Schorr, a real authority of Polish Jewry, is kept in Bolshevik prisons and no one makes the slightest effort to rescue him ... (A. Sztibel, letter to Cyrus Adler)
After more than a year of waiting, it became clear that the next day they would all be deported to the Drancy internment camp, from where detainees were transported to Auschwitz. Tamara Schorr and her daughter Felicia Kon decided to commit suicide on 17 April 1944 so that Felicia's children, as orphans, could avoid transfer. Tamara Schorr died after consuming poison. Her daughter Felicia was wounded after she jumped out a window, and was taken to hospital. Their other daughter, Sonia, managed to reach New York City with her husband Arthur Miller toward the end of 1940.
A scientific meeting was devoted to Schorr. In 1993 a similar meeting took place at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków. In 2001 an Educational Center named in honor of Prof. Moses Schorr was established in Warsaw, aimed at the education of the Jewish community remaining in Poland. Schorr Center was founded as one of the projects of Ronald Lauder Foundation to cultivate Jewish literacy, culture, and history among Jews all over Poland.
The major defect of the methods of research of Jewish history in Poland is that the general issues were studied before the details had been exposed. There was attempt to present the history of the Jews in entire Poland, before this history had been reviewed in specific cities. The historical entireness was treated, before the elemental processes had been exposed. Therefore, also today's general works on the history of Polish Jewry, and they are few after all, are characterised by the dilettante forms, lacking integrity, accurateness and clarity in subject presentation. Their material used is meager and not sufficient to encompass the entirety of the history of Polish Jewry, neither in the political-economic sphere nor in the cultural developments. An appropriate solid basis for such a general task can only be constructed by virtue of the archival material, which is so abundantly accumulated in different archives and partially the libraries. The fundamental, scientific presentation of the entire history will only be possible when the factual historical, economic and cultural developments in the major cities will be multilaterally studied on the basis of archival sources. Publication and analysis of the archival documents should be the first task preceding the general studies." — M. Schorr. Lwów, October 1902
The techniques and methods Schorr used in historical studies were far ahead of his young age (28) and the time in which he worked. He began his scientific work as an auditor in Vienna University in 1897 with his paper entitled Zur Geschichte des Don Josef Nasi ("Concerning the history of Don Joseph Nasi"), which was published in Monatschrift fur die Wiessenschaft des Judenstum. In this work he analyses the relations of Joseph Nasi (1524–1579) with the Polish king Sigismund August (1520–1572) in light of the situation of Jews in Poland at that time. Joseph Nasi was a Portuguese born marrano (secret Jew) appointed the Lord of Tiberias and the Duke of Naxos and the Seven Islands. He was one of the first and an influential Ottoman statesman during the reign of Selim II (1566–1574). Schorr analysed the relations of Joseph Nasi with Poland. Though he was a 20-year-old student at the time, he corrected a fundamental error of Graetz, a leading historian, who claimed that Sigismund August acknowledged a number of commercial privileges for the Polish Jews by virtue of the services of Joseph Nasi to Polish diplomacy at the Ottoman court. On the basis of sources found by Schorr in the historical city archives of Lwów, he came to the conclusion that Joseph Nasi was not guided by altruism but wanted the privilege to trade in Lwów for himself, and obtained it.
... the organization of Jews in Poland is thus one of the most important and the most interesting parts of Jewish culture in Poland; I will only note the huge importance "the council of four lands" had directing the life of Polish Jews for 200 years. In general, my intention is to devote myself to the study of Jewish history in Poland. For the next task of mine I consider the publication of the most important archival documents concerning the Jews—the way Bershadsky began that already. During my search of the City Historical Archives in Lwów, I became convinced that there are real treasures for the history of Polish Jews. I am staying all the time in Vienna, except holidays. I still have 1½ years until finishing my theological studies. I doubt very much that I will be following the profession of a preacher rabbi in practice. I am more fond of scientific work. I repeat that your interest in my historical works is a good stimulus for me; that motivates me even more to my intended research ....
Among the wide range of sources presented in the second part of the book we find the first fundamental privilege given by king Sigismund II August to the Jews of Przemyśl in 1559, allowing them to live there with the same rights and freedoms as other townsmen (no. 1); the Order of Sigismund II August to the mayor and counselors regarding the attack on the Jews in 1561 (no. 2); the contract of 1595 between the town hall and Jewish elders on the matter of Jewish participation in the fortification of the city (no. 20); the protest of town pharmacists against the Jewish elders for the production of medical items by the Jews in 1677 (no. 121); the order of the governor of Rus' lands Jabłonowski allowing a free election of a rabbi after the ardent requests of "unfaithful" Jewish elders and the whole synagogue of Przemyśl (no. 130). Several Polish sources from 1759 published in this edition (nos. 143 – 144) deal with charges against the Jews of Stupnica in a supposed ritual Easter murder, their tortures and refusal of the charges, and the consequent execution of the accused. A similar Polish document (no. 76) from the year 1646 deals with charges of ritual child murder against twelve Przemyśl Jews, one of whom was punished. Schorr preserves the archaic form of the old Polish language in the documents which gives them a special character.
Schorr is the author of a lengthy article about the Hebrew language in the Encyklopedja Polska (Polish Encyclopedia, vol. III, 1915). One of his last works in the field of Jewish history in Poland, is Rechtsstellung und innere Verfassung der Juden in Polen ("The Legal Situation and Internal Organisation of Jews in Poland"), published in German in Berlin and Vienna in 1917.
His first works in Oriental studies included a paper on the excavations and discoveries at Amarna (1900), followed by the investigation of Starożytności biblijne w swietle archiwum egipskiego ("Biblical Antiquities in the Light of the Egyptian Archive"). This was published in the magazine Przewodnik naukowy i literacki in 1901 and separately as well. In 1903 Schorr commented extensively on Babel und Bibel ("Babylon and Bible"), a book by his former German tutor Friedrich Delitzsch (1902). Schorr's commentary, "Kultura Babilońska a starohebrajska" ("Babylonian and Hebrew Culture"), appeared in Lwów's Kwartalnik historyczny and later in a separate edition. Kwartalnik Historyczny was the major publication for Lwów historians at that time and Schorr was one of its regular contributors.
Some of Schorr's works were written and published in German, his second native language; German was then an official Habsburg language in Eastern Galicia, along with Polish and Ukrainian. One such study is Die Kohler-Peiserische Hammurabi Übersetzung ("The Peiser-Kohler Translation of the Hammurabi Code).
He conducted research on the history of the social and commercial life of the Ancient Orient, and particularly trade in ancient Babylon. The work's title is Ruch handlowy w Satorożytnej Babilonii ("The trade movement in old Babylon"). It was published in 1911 in a commemorative book celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of Lwów University.
Schorr translated and systematised old Babylonian legal documents and wrote an extensive commentary entitled Altbabylonische Rechtsurkunden aus der Zeit der I -ste Babylonische Dynastie ("Old Babylonian legal documents from the First Babylonian dynasty"). The legal issues and the legal history of the laws were the main subjects of Schorr's research. He did significant research in comparative studies of the legal systems of Babylon and the surrounding cultures of that time, in particular the Hebrew legal system.
Kodeks Hammurabiego a ówczesna praktyka prawna ("The Hammurabi Code and Ancient Oriental Legal Practices") first appeared in Rozprawy (Studies) of the historical department of Kraków Academy of Sciences; in 1907 it was published separately.
Schorr's Urkunden des altbabylonische Zivil- und Prozessrechts ("The Documents of the Old Babylonian Civil and Criminal Law) is considered to be his greatest scholarly achievement in the Oriental field. It is a volume of sources with extensive comments by Schorr.
Italian Jewry has undergone a great loss in the death of the Rabbi of Florence and rector of local rabbinical seminary Dr. Samuel Hirsch Margulies (died on March 12), who had been the Rabbi for more than three decades leaving a strong footprint on a life and culture of the Jews of whole Italy. Margulies was of Polish origin...In 1890 he was called for the position of the Rabbi of Florence, where he managed to become the leader of whole Italian Jewry. He became the spiritual leader in all the spheres of the civic life, on account of his deep Judaic knowledge, organisational abilities and personal favourite pursuits in the subjects of spirit and heart. Thanks to him the indifferent religious life of Italian Jews started to be a live artery filled with strong native Jewish traditions and culture. He also initiated the centralized unification of all Jewish communities which created a new Collegio rabbinico italiano...in Florence...This seminary produced an array of young Rabbis, who started the spiritual renaissance of Italian Jewry."
Schorr's broadest article in Chwila was Prawo Mojżesza na tle poròwnawczem prawodawst Starożytnego Wschodu (The Laws of Moses in Comparative Perspective with the Laws of the Ancient Orient"). This work was a series of articles in several newspaper issues, where Schorr draws comparisons between Biblical and Babylonian laws in the first part of the series, following with a comparison with the Assyrian and Hettite legislatures in the second and third sections. Schorr also refers back to his previous work, The Hettites' Problem, published seven years before in Kwartalnik historyczny.
A few other newly discovered publications of Schorr should be mentioned include Kwestya żydowska w dobie Sejmu Wiekiego ("The Jewish Question at the Time of the Great Sejm"); religious teachings such as Radosna Chwila ("The Joyful Moment"), and Pesach Micarim - Pesach le Atid on the occasion of the Easter celebration.
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