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Kley, Israel

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Kley, Wilhelm

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German preacher, educator, and writer; born at Bernstadt, Silesia, June 10, 1789; died at Hamburg Oct. 4, 1867. He attended the Wilhelm school at Breslau—in which he soon after gave instruction himself—and the gymnasium there. He studied also at the Berlin University under Fichte and Schleiermacher. In 1817 he accepted a call to Hamburg as head teacher and director of the free school, founded in 1815. This school gave the impulse to the founding of the temple at Hamburg, which inaugurated a reform in the liturgy and stood, in general, for the adaptation of Jewish worship to the spirit of the times. Kley, who had already officiated as preacher at the Jacobson Temple in Berlin together with Auerbach and Günsburg, was the first preacher at the Hamburg Temple, which position he retained for over twenty-one years, resigning it May 9, 1840. He was director of the free school until 1848. An institution bearing his name, for aged and destitute teachers, was erected in Hamburg.

Kley was a very prolific writer. Together with K. S. Günsburg he published "Erbauungen über Gottes Werk und Wort" (Berlin, 1813-14), and "Die Deutsche Synagoge" in 2 parts (ib. 1817-18). Several editions of his Katechismus der Mosaischen Religionslehre" (Leipsic, 1814) were published, the last in 1850; also of his "Israelitisches Gesangbuch" (Hamburg, 1818), for which special melodies were written (ib. 1846). He published also a large number of sermons, either separately or in collections. Of the latter may be mentioned "Predigten in dem Neuen Israelitischen Tempel zu Hamburg" (ib. 1819-20); "Die Feste des Herrn"; "Israelitische Predigten für Alle Festtage des Jahres" (Berlin, 1824); "Sammlung der Neuesten Predigten Gehalten in dem Neuen Israel. Tempel zu Hamburg," edited by Ed. Kley and G. Salomon, 2 vols. (Hamburg, 1826-27); "Die Ruhe der Religion Mitten in der Welt Unruhe," five sermons (ib. 1831); "Blätter der Erinnerung: Letzte Kanzelvorträge im Neuen Israel. Tempel" (ib. 1844).

Kley, who is often called the Jewish Schleiermacher, published also sketches of sermons on the first Book of Moses (Grünberg-Leipsic, 1844), and on the second Book of Moses (Leipsic, 1856); further "Geschichtliche Darstellung der Israel. Freischule zu Hamburg" (Hamburg, 1841); "Die Erste Morgengabe zur Lehre und Bildung" (Grünberg, 1843); "Noch ein Wort zur Israel. Reformfrage" (Hamburg, 1845).