DIENEMANN, MAX

DIENEMANN, MAX (1875–1939), German Reform rabbi and author. Dienemann was born in Krotoszyn (now Poznań province, Poland), and studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary and university in Breslau. He served as rabbi in Ratibor, Upper Silesia, from 1903 to 1919, and at Offenbach from 1920 to 1938, when he immigrated to Palestine. Dienemann was one of the leaders of Reform in Germany and an active supporter of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Dienemann wrote Judentum und Christentum (1914), Liberales Judentum (1935), Galuth (1939), and Midrashim der Klage und des Zuspruchs ausgewaehlt und uebersetzt (1935). He also published some sermons. Dienemann contributed articles to journals including Der Morgen, of which he was coeditor from 1931 to 1933. On his 60th birthday the Jewish community of Offenbach presented him with a Festschrift (Minḥat Todah) Max Dienemann (1935), and later his wife published a memorial volume, Max Dienemann: ein Gedenkbuch, 1875–1935 (1946); both contain bibliographies. Selections from the siddur, in German translation, edited by S. Guggenheim and dedicated to Dienemann's memory, were published in 1948 as Aus den Gebeten Israel.