{{notability|1=Biographies|date=June 2017}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific-prefix = | name = Berthold Oppenheim | honorific-suffix = | title = | image = Rabín Berthold Oppenheim.jpg | caption = Berthold Oppenheim, c. 1892 | synagogue = | synagogueposition= | yeshiva = | yeshivaposition = | organisation = | organisationposition= | began = | ended = | predecessor = | successor = | rabbi = | rebbe = | kohan = | hazzan = | rank = | other_post = <!---------- Personal details ----------> | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1867|7|29|df=yes}} | birth_place = Ivančice, Moravia, Austro-Hungary | death_date = {{Death year and age|1942|1867}} | death_place = Treblinka extermination camp, General Government, Nazi Germany | yahrtzeit = | buried = | nationality = | denomination = | residence = Olomouc | dynasty = | parents = | father = Joachim Oppenheim (1832–1891) | mother = Helene Oppenheim (1839-1929) | spouse = | children = | occupation = | profession = | alma_mater = | semicha = | signature = }}

'''Berthold Oppenheim '''(1867–1942) was the rabbi of Olomouc,<ref name=de1>{{cite web|url=http://kehila-olomouc.cz/rs/1739/phdr-berthold-oppenheim/|title=PhDr. Berthold Oppenheim|date=Dec 4, 2008|language=cs|access-date=June 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name= de2>{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Joachim (Ḥayyim) Oppenheim|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11724-oppenheim#anchor3|accessdate=Apr 27, 2017|first=Gotthard|last=Deutsch|authorlink=Gotthard Deutsch}}<br/>'''''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography''': *Sokolow, ''Sefer Zikkaron'', pp. 126-127, Warsaw, 1889; *idem, ''Ha-Asif'', vi. 126-127.</ref> Moravia, from 1892 to 1939. He was murdered in 1942 at the Treblinka extermination camp.<ref name=de1/>

== Life ==

Oppenheim was born on July 29, 1867, to a rabbinical family.<ref name=de1/> His father, Joachim Heinrich Oppenheim, was (from 1858) a rabbi in Jemnice, South Moravia, and later (from 1868 to 1891) in Toruń,<ref name=de1/><ref name=de2/> Prussia, (today in Poland). He was also a nephew of the Viennese Hebraist, Isaac Hirsch Weiss,<ref name=de1/> who was married to Joachim's sister.

Berthold Oppenheim studied Hebrew and Judaism at various institutes and universities in Berlin and Wrocław.<ref name=de1/>

Oppenheim came to Olomouc in 1892 from Miroslav, South Moravia, where there was a strong Jewish community and where Oppenheim was active as a rabbi in 1891/1892.<ref name=de1/>

In 1892, when the independent Jewish community was established in Olomouc, Oppenheim was inaugurated as the first rabbi of the Jewish community in Olomouc. The inauguration took place on November 1, 1892.<ref name=de1/>

In 1894, Oppenheim initiated the construction of the Olomouc Synagogue, which was completed in 1897.<ref name=de1/>

He also gave lectures. For example, on May 7, 1898, at the sixth monthly session of the ZION Society in the Reichert Hall in Olomouc, he gave a lecture on the topic of Humanity in the Old Testament.<ref name=de1/>

In 1906 he became a founding member of the Union of Moravian-Silesian Rabbis (Svazu Moravsko-slezských rabínů), which was founded in Přerov in 1906 and Oppenheim was elected as vice-chairman. He also expressed his conviction that the union could work only in close contact with the representatives of the Jewish religious communities; it should serve to increase Jewish self-esteem; to take care of Jewish literature and history; to revive the Hebrew language; to establish libraries; to organize educational and scientific lectures; and more frequent meetings of rabbis should strengthen their mutual collegial feelings.<ref name=de1/>

He took part at General Meetings of the Rabbinic Union; for example, on August 21, 1907, in Ostrava (then Moravian Ostrava), where he dealt mainly with the question of social and pension provision of rabbis and employees of Jewish communities, and at a General Meeting held in Brno on March 20, 1908.<ref name=de1/>

On May 28, 1908, he organized a conference of the Union of Moravian-Silesian Rabbis which took place at the German Casino in Olomouc.<ref name=de1/>

In 1918, when the rabbi of Loštice, {{ill|Izrael Günzig|de}}, moved to Antwerp, Belgium, Oppenheim took over this position also as rabbi of Loštice.<ref name=de1/>

He also served as a member of a roughly ten-member council of Jewish communities.<ref name=de1/>

He taught Hebrew at the German grammar school in Olomouc (where, for example, in the school year 1932/1933, there was a total of 40 Jewish pupils, 14.4% of the school's student body).<ref name=de1/>

He also worked in the Chevra Kadisha and founded the Freitisch-Verein, which supported impoverished Jewish students in Olomouc schools.<ref name=de1/>

In the 1930s, at age 65, Oppenheim visited the Land of Israel.<ref name=de1/>

Oppenheim arrived in Palestine on the occasion of the 1st Maccabiah in March and April 1932 and described his journey in the Brno Zionist weekly ''Jüdische Volksstimme'': a journey via Břeclav to Vienna and from there to Trieste, a one-day stopover in Athens, arriving at the Jaffa Harbor, from where it was only a short while to Tel Aviv. Oppenheim traveled everywhere in Palestine: "This way, I have fulfilled my desire of decades to visit the fatherland, to see biblical and historical sites."<ref name=de1/>

Oppenheim served as the rabbi of Olomouc practically throughout the pre-war existence of the Jewish community in Olomouc. He remained a rabbi until 1939 and was replaced in 1940 by Rabbi Ernst Reich<ref name=de1/> (until 1942).

== Deportation and death ==

On July 8, 1942, he boarded the Transport AAo from Olomouc to Theresienstadt<ref name=de1/><ref name=de3>{{cite web|url= http://katalog.terezinstudies.cz/deu/ITI/database/tr_in_date|title=Liste aller Transporte nach Theresienstadt|language=de|trans-title=List of all transports to Theresienstadt|access-date=May 21, 2017}}</ref> and on October 15, 1942 he was deported with Transport Bv to Poland (so-called "transports of old") – to Treblinka,<ref name=de1/><ref name=de4>{{cite web|url=http://kehila-olomouc.cz/rs/soucastnost/stolpersteine-2/rabin-berthold-oppenheim/|title=rabín Berthold Oppenheim|language=cs|trans-title=Rabbi Berthold Oppenheim|access-date=May 21, 2017}}</ref> where he was murdered in the same year.

Whether he died in a gas chamber, or was killed in a so-called lazaret (which was a group of barracks surrounded by a fence and an adjoining pit full of bodies of wounded men who have resorted to believing that they would find at least elementary care here) is not known.<ref name=de1/>

== Memorial plaque ==

In 1974, the synagogue corps in Olomouc left a memorial plaque for Rabbi Oppenheim, which was placed in the Jewish cemetery in Olomouc, on the gravestone of his mother Helene Oppenheim (1839-1929), beside the right wall of the cemetery chapel.<ref name=de1/>

== ''Stolperstein'' == thumb|Stolperstein in Olomouc

On the 29 and 30 October 2012, 42 ''Stolpersteine'' were laid in Olomouc, including one for Oppenheim and his wife in front of the former building on the Avenue Třída Svobody 24 (later demolished), where he lived until his deportation. The ''Stolperstein'' carries the following text<ref name=de4/> (shown here with English translation): {| |<div style="margin-left:4em; font-size:80%;"> ZDE BYDLEL<br /> RABÍN<br /> BERTHOLD OPPENHEIM<br /> NAR. 1867<br /> DEPORTOVÁN 1942<br /> DO TEREZÍNA<br /> ZAVRAŽDĚN<br /> V TREBLINCE<br /> </div> | <div style="margin-left:4em; font-size:80%;"> HERE RESIDED<br /> RABBI<br /> BERTHOLD OPPENHEIM<br /> BORN 1867<br /> DEPORTED IN 1942<br /> TO THERESIENSTADT<br /> MURDERED<br /> IN TREBLINKA<br /> </div> |}

== Articles == * Berthold Oppenheim, ''Geschichte der Juden in Olmütz'', in: H. Gold (Hrsg.), ''Die Juden und Judengemeinden Mährens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart''. A collection, Jüdischer Buch- und Kunstverlag, Brünn 1929, pp.&nbsp;451–456 (in German), downloadable free of charge at the [http://d-nb.info/1193031869 Deutsche Nationalbibliothek] (German National Library) by clicking on "Archivobjekt öffnen".

== Sources == * Vladimír Jorda: ''PhDr. Berthold Oppenheim'', A biography written for the Jewish Community of Olomouc, online at: [http://kehila-olomouc.cz/rs/1739/phdr-berthold-oppenheim/]

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == *{{cite web|url=http://m.zurnal.upol.cz/nc/zprava/clanek/olomouc-klade-druhou-vlnu-stolpersteinu/|title=Olomouc klade druhou vlnu Stolpersteinů|date=29 October 2012|website=Žurnál Online|language=cs|trans-title=Olomouc Sets the Second Wave of ''Stolperstein''s|access-date=22 May 2017|archive-date=30 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730065314/http://m.zurnal.upol.cz/nc/zprava/clanek/olomouc-klade-druhou-vlnu-stolpersteinu/|url-status=dead}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheim, Berthold}} Category:1867 births Category:1942 deaths Category:People from Ivančice Category:Clergy from Olomouc Category:People who died in Treblinka extermination camp Category:Moravian rabbis