É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.

Greetings - SCHWEITZER, József

GREETING ADDRESS TO THE CONFERENCE József Schweitzer Retired and Honorary Rector of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary Chief Rabbi of Hungary Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great honour for me to have been invited to deliver a lecture at the conference held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of David Kaufmann's death. To my sincere regret, feeble health prevents me from complying with this kind invitation. However, as the retired Rector of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary. I consider it my sacred duty to express my deep respect and heartfelt thanks to the convenors, the presidium, the participants and the audience of the conference destined to conjure up the memory of David Kaufmann. He was a person of encyclopaedic learning, a true polymath. It fills us with admiration that in the course of his rather short life he published approximately 30 books and 500 articles, all of which possess lasting value in the various fields of Jewish studies. We can honestly state that the emergence of an unparalleled triumvirate among the first professors of our Seminary has been a unique phenomenon in the history of Jewish educational institutions all over the world. Its members set the scholarly course of the Seminary and determined its religious spirit. Along with Moses Bloch and Wilhelm Bacher, David Kaufmann, who can justly be regarded as a founder of a school of historians, was the third member of this unrivalled group. A whole series of his disciples were engaged as rabbis in the foundation of the scholarly discipline of the history of Hungarian Jewry, thereby achieving world-wide recognition. For Kaufmann, the research into Jewish history was not a dry scholarly task but he regarded it as a labour of love, a labour of especial devotion. In the area of the philosophy of religion he demonstrated - in addition to Greek and Arab intluences - the presence of original ideas, with special respect to the purity of the idea of godhead. As a homilist, he professed the eternity of the spirit of Judaism and the perpetuity of its supreme mission. As a private person, he was a tradition-bound pious Jew. His name and life-work have crowned the Budapest Seminary with the aura of glory ever since. We bless his memory and follow the Talmud in declaring: "We are your disciples and draw from your well." Let me greet the conference once again wishing all participants fruitful days and success. 13