HIRSCH, SAMSON RAPHAEL Jewish theologian, was born in Hamburg on June 20, 1808, and died at Frankfort-on-the-Main on Dec. 31, 1888. He studied at Mann heim and at Bonn university, and was chief rabbi of Oldenburg from 1830-41, when he was transferred to Aurich and Osnabruck. In 1846 he was called to Moravia, but five years later, became rabbi of a reformed section of Jews at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Hirsch opposed the reform tendency of Geiger (q.v.), and pre sented Jewish orthodoxy in a new light. His philosophical con ception of tradition, associated as it was with conservatism in ritual practice, created what is often known as the Frankfort "Neo-Orthodoxy." His famous Nineteen Letters (1836, Eng. trs. 1899) was followed by Horeb, and commentaries on the Penta teuch and Psalms. Three volumes of his essays were published (1902-8).
For his philosophy see S. A. Hirsch, A Book of Essays (1905).