Ellen Littmann

Ellen Littmann (1909-1975) was a German-Jewish scholar of Judaism and the first woman to graduate from the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, the rabbinic seminary of German Jewry. Littmann was later associated with the Leo Baeck College of London where she taught biblical studies.^[1]

Biography

Born in Danzig in 1909, Ellen Littmann was attracted to Jewish studies from a young age and sought to study at the Hochschule. Rabbi Leo Baeck encouraged her to study and persuaded her parents to agree to this pursuit on the basis that Littmann would receive a teaching position after graduation. While Littmann did not receive rabbinical ordination, she was qualified to academically teach Jewish studies. In 1928, Littmann received a doctorate from the University of Cologne, her thesis concerned the re-admission of Jews into German towns following the Black Death. Littmann later moved to London where she taught at Leo Baeck College.^[1]^[2] Rabbi Dr. Werner van der Zyl was instrumental in recruiting Littmann to her position at the college.^[3]^[4]

Writings and publications

Littmann, E. (1928). Studien zur Wiederaufnahme der Juden durch die deutschen Städte nach dem schwarzen Tode. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Judenpolitik der deutschen Städte im späten Mittelalter. Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, (H. 11/12), 576-600.
Littmann, E. (1935). David Friedländers Sendschreiben an Probst Teller und sein Echo. Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, 6, 92-112.
Littmann, E. (1959). Unser Lehrer. Worte des Gedenkens für Leo Baeck, 171-173.
Littmann, E. (1960). Saul Ascher: First Theorist of Progressive Judaism. The Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, 5(1), 107-121.
Littmann, E. (1973). The First Ten Years of the Leo Baeck College'. Reform Judaism: Essays on Reform Judaism in Britain, 160-78.

References

^ ^a ^b Seidel, E. (2019). "Women Students at the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums" in Bomhoff, H., Eger, D. L., Ehrensperger, K., & Homolka, W. (eds), Gender and Religious Leadership: Women Rabbis, Pastors, and Ministers. Page 59.
^ Freidenreich, H. P. (2004). Women Pioneers of Jewish Learning: Ruth Liebrecht and Her Companions at the" Hochschule fur Wissenschaft des Judentums" in Berlin 1930-1934. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 22(2), 169-171.
^ Magonet, J. (2006). From Artilleriestrasse to upper Berkeley Street: the origins of a rabbinical college. European Judaism, 39(1), 3-15.
^ Magonet, J. (2012). Rabbi Dr Werner Van Der Zyl and the Creation of Leo Baeck College: The German Rabbinate Abroad–Transferring German-Jewish Modernity into the World?. European Judaism, 45(2), 103-111.