Bidspirit auction | (RUSSIA / BELGIUM). ARMOND BLOCH.

(RUSSIA / BELGIUM). ARMOND BLOCH.  Les Juifs Russes. Sermon Prononcé au Temple Israélite de Bruxelles. Brussels, Michel van Dantzig, 1893. pp. 15. Ex-library. Original printed wrappers. 8vo. Chief Rabbi of Belgium, Armand Bloch (1861-1923) studied rabbinics at the rue Vauquelin seminary in Paris (1878-1885), then began his first pulpit in Toul, from 1887 to 1891, after having been librarian of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He ran for the position of Chief Rabbi of Belgium, left vacant by the accession of Jacques-Henri Dreyfus to the Grand Rabbinate of Paris, and was elected by a comfortable majority on 19 October 1891. He held this position until his death. Armand Bloch took the reins of the Jewish communities in Belgium at a time of great upheaval: the massive arrival of Eastern European Jews considerably changed the face of Belgian Judaism, which, like many European countries, also experienced a clear resurgence of antisemitism. In addition, he was confronted with the creation, in a few short years, of several communities of Orthodox denomination, whose relations with the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium and with the spiritual authority it represented, were not always easy. In addition to his religious duties, Armand Bloch devoted himself to raising funds to help the victims of the pogroms in Russia, as well as Russian Jewish orphans sent to Belgium. He was also involved in a number of community charities. He was an inspector for the teaching of Jewish religion and morals in the primary schools of the Kingdom (1905) and chaplain to the prisons of Saint-Gilles, Forest and Louvain. Bloch’s sermons, marked by an ardent patriotism, show that he was a traditionalist, close to his predecessor Dreyfus in this respect, but that he had to give way, despite his convictions, to the wishes of the secular members of the Consistory. See Jean-Philippe Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge XIXe-XXe siècles (2002) pp. 60-61.