Michael_Sachs

Michael Sachs (1808-1864), German Rabbi. He was one of the first of Jewish graduates of the modern universities, taking his Ph.D. degree in 1836. He was appointed Rabbi in Prague in 1836, and in Berlin in 1844. He took the conservative side against the Reform agitation, and so strongly opposed the introduction of the organ into the Synagogue that he retired from the Rabbinate rather than acquiesce. Sachs was one of the greatest preachers of his age, and published two volumes of Sermons (Predigten, 1866-1891). He co-operated with Zunz (q.v.) in a new translation of the Bible. Sachs is best remembered for his work on Hebrew poetry, Religiose Poesie der Juden in Spanien (1845); his more ambitious critical work (Beitrage zur Sprachand Alterthumsforschung, 2 vols., 1852-1854) is of less lasting value. His poetical gifts he turned to admirable account in his translation of the Festival Prayers (Mahzor, 9 vols., 1855), a new feature of which was the metrical rendering of the medieval Hebrew hymns. Another very popular work by Sachs contains poetical paraphrases of Rabbinic legends (Stimmen vom Jordan and Euphrat, 1853). (I. A.)