Philipp de Haas

Philipp de Haas saw the light of day in Pyrmont on March 6, 1884. He was born as the son of the teacher Markus de Haas. During his childhood and youth, de Haas attended the Gymnasium in Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt. He successfully completed the school with the maturity examination of the time and then moved to Wroclaw (Poland) to study.

From 1902 to 1905, de Haas attended the university in Breslau (today: Wrocław, Poland). At the Jewish Theological Seminary, which he attended from 1902 to 1909, de Haas later also passed his rabbinical examination. The Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (actually: Jewish Theological Seminary Fraenckel'sche Stiftung) was opened in 1854 and was a central training institution for rabbis as well as teachers that existed until 1938. Its library numbered over 30,000 volumes and was housed at what was then Wallstrasse 14. In terms of teaching content, the seminary can be placed in the middle of the interests of the Reform and the traditional Orthodox. Finally, from 1905 to 1906, de Haas attended the University of Strasbourg, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1906.

Before de Haas made his way to Oldenburg, he gained some experience as second rabbi in Posen and as rabbi in Katowice until he decided to apply for the vacant position in the Oldenburg State Rabbinate.

De Haas applied for the office of state rabbi in Oldenburg in 1920 and was successfully elected the same year. During his time as rabbi in Oldenburg, several reorganizations of the legal relations with the state and the reorganization of the constitution of the Jewish communities took place through the "Gesetz betr. die Berechtigung der jüdischen Religionsgesellschaft im Landesteil Oldenburg zur Erhebung von Steuern" of March 28, 1927 and through the renewed "Gemeindeordnung für die Synagogengemeinden und Landesgemeinde" of April 2, 1924. The synagogue community councils and the state community council were expanded, while the organization remained unchanged. In addition, the synagogue congregations became public corporations along with the Landesgemeinde. Nevertheless, de Haas did not succeed in obtaining help from the ministry for the community's financially straitened situation. This situation was further aggravated after the payments of the subsidies for the costs of the Jewish community, which had been granted since 1876, were stopped by the National Socialist government in 1932.

In response, de Haas lowered his own salary and successfully negotiated with the Prussian State Association of Jewish Communities so that the Oldenburg State Community could join him and was now almost entirely financially maintained by them.

During his tenure, he lived at Moltkestraße 6 (6a). Philipp de Haas died in 1935 at the age of 51 in Oldenburg. His wife Anny was still able to leave Germany in 1939. Also two of his children, his son and a daughter, managed to emigrate to Rhodesia in the same year.

In the magazine Der Israelit of May 2, 1935, the obituary appeared: "Landrabbiner Dr. de Haas - the memory of the righteous is a blessing. Oldenburg, April 21 (1935)." This article impressively shows how much people thought of Dr. phil. Philipp de Haas, what consternation his passing caused and what emptiness he left behind. Particularly meaningful passages were, for example: "It is inconceivable to everyone that the Führer could be snatched from us so quickly by God's inscrutable counsel. Orphans we became and there is no longer a father. The teacher of religion is missing, who made the hearts beat higher by his instructing word every Sabbath and every festival; the friend and advisor is missing, to whom the many, who are in need and distress, can turn" (in: Der Israelit, May 2, 1935, p. 10).

But not only the city of Oldenburg experienced a great loss through the death of de Haas: "From the beginning of his rabbinical activity in Bytom, as later in Oldenburg, Dr. de Haas represented the interests of German Orthodoxy, as well as of the Agudas Yisroel world organization, with a love and loyalty of conviction that was unparalleled. At the Rabbinical Conferences Rabbi de Haas was one of the most interesting phenomena. His voice always rose and glowed with warmth when it came to the vital questions of Torah faithful Judaism" (ibid.). "For Land Rabbi Dr. de Haas, there was only one standard for the solution of all-Jewish questions: the Torah, and only one task for the rabbi of a Jewish community: working for the Torah, securing the future of the community by anchoring it in the Torah" (ibid.).