HIRSCH, SAMSON RAPHAEL (1808–1888), was a German rabbi and the foremost ideologue of Jewish Neo-Orthodoxy in the Western world. Hirsch was born in Hamburg and educated in an "enlightened-pious" family of Orthodox Jews who rejected the notion that secular culture is incompatible with traditional Jewish faith. Thus he continued his studies with Jacob Ettlinger and Isaac Bernays, rabbis who were receptive to modern culture. He studied at the University of Bonn in 1829 and, in 1830, became Landrabbiner of Oldenburg. In 1836 Hirsch wrote his Neunzehn Briefe über Judentum (The Nineteen Letters on Judaism), which has become a classic expression of Jewish Neo-Orthodox philosophy. A year later, in 1837, he wrote Choreb, oder Versuche über Jissroels Pflichten in der Zerstreuung (Horeb: Essays on Israel's "duties" in the Diaspora), his major work on the nature of Jewish revelation and law. These works earned Hirsch a reputation as a champion of...