MICHAEL

See also:

• SACHS, HANS (1494-1576)
• SACHS, JULIUS VON (1832-1897)
• MICHAEL SACHS (1808–1864)

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 Sprach- and 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 (Maltzor, q vols., 1855), a new teature 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 .