KIRSCHSTEIN, MORITZ

KIRSCHSTEIN, MORITZ (1826–1900), pedagogue, active in Reform Judaism. Born in Chodziez (Poznan), he received his talmudic education in Glogau and, under the guidance of israel b. gedaliah lipschuetz , in Danzig (Gdansk). After studying philosophy in Berlin, where he also studied under L. Zunz , he taught religion at the Jewish community's boys' school, and from 1866 he was director of the first Jewish religious school in Berlin. He was a member of the commission that compiled the Reform prayer book for the Berlin community and was entrusted by abraham geiger with editing the German text of the prayers. Kirschstein published Der Unterricht in der Religion und im Hebraeischen (1863), on teaching religion and Hebrew; and Der Unterricht in der biblischen Geschichte (1871), on the teaching of biblical history. A collection of scientific treatises, lectures, speeches, and sermons, among them Avnei Zikkaron (Predigten; 1902), was published after his death. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Festschrift zur Feier des hundertjaehrigen Bestehens der Knabenschule der juedischen Gemeinden in Berlin (1926), 107; A. Kober, in: LBYB, 2 (1957), 111. (Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)