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User:הסרפד/Asher Eder

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Asher (born Oskar) Eder (1925–2011) was a German convert to Judaism.


Early life edit

Eder was born in Lauf near Nuremberg, Germany in 1925.[1][a] He was a member (not a battalion leader) of the Hitler Youth; he was a pilot in the Luftwaffe at the end of World War Two, but never engaged in combat. After the war's end until the early 1950's, he studied law and graduated as a doctor of law and worked as a lawyer for Commerzbank in Frankfurt. He then travel to Asia "in search of the truth". After investigating various Eastern religions and Islam, he moved to Israel, where, together with other Christian Germans, he helped found a small settlement near Yokneam in the Galilee where he lived in a small cabin. In February 1966, he submitted a request to convert to the Bet Din (rabbinical court) of Haifa.

After a delay of almost three years (during which he visited Germany, and when his cabin was destroyed in a fire, resettled in Jerusalem) he completed his conversion in 1969, and then married.

Israel edit

In January 1957, Eder arrived in Jerusalem via the Mandelbaum Gate.[5]

Eder joined HaZore'a, a kibbutz populated by German Jews.[6] There he studied Hebrew, and chose the Hebrew name his ulpan teacher suggested to him: "Asher" (Hebrew: אשר‎), after the biblical son of Jacob and for its similarity to his birth name.[7] Eventually, he was asked to leave, as local Holocaust survivors found the presence of a German unpleasant, especially one with a military past.[8]

After working in the Ahava Orphanage in Kiryat Bialik for a while,[9]

Conversion edit

In 1968, after returning from Germany,[citation needed] Eder again planned to apply for conversion.[10] At the advice of his friend David Flusser, he had himself circumcised in advance, at a hospital in Tel Aviv, on 23 May of that year.[11] Eder assuaged the rabbis' remaining doubts about his vegetarianism, but his conversion was postponed once more.[11] Finally, in January 1969, the rabbinical court gave its approval;[12][13] in March,[b] the three rabbis of the Haifa bet din performed the formal conversion—hatafat dam brit (drawing of blood)[c] and immersion in a mikvah (ritual bath)—with Flusser, Falk and his intended wife observing.[15] Eder adopted "Asher Avraham ben Avraham" (Hebrew: אשר אברהם בן אברהם‎) as his Jewish name.[16][13]

He changed his name to "Asher (Avraham) Eder" (spelling his surname in Hebrew inconsistently as either אדר‎ or עדר‎‎) as his Hebrew name, though he had been using "Asher" since learning Hebrew, after aariving in Israel. In his later life, he worked a tour guide, co-founded (with Abdul Hadi Palazzi[17]) the "Islam-Israel Fellowship", and wrote several books. He was the primary inspiration of Ehud Ben Ezer's(he) 1968 novel, Anshe Sedom (אנשי סדום‎), which, in its 2001 edition, has an epilogue describing Eder's history; in 2004, his biography, Pilgrimage from Darkness: Nuremberg to Jerusalem, was written by David E. Feldman (University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1-57806-619-3).

Notes edit

  1. ^ Lowell Gallin has Eder's date of birth as 14 March,[2] consistent[3] with the Hebrew birthday (18 Adar) given by Feldman.[4]
  2. ^ Carmeli[12] implies—as does Eder,[14] in his letter to Davar— that the conversion took place in January.
  3. ^ Performed on previously circumcised converts instead of circumcision.[citation needed]

References edit

  1. ^ Feldman (2004), inside front cover.
  2. ^ Gallin (2011).
  3. ^ Hebrew Date Converter (Hebcal.com)
  4. ^ Feldman (2004), p. 342.
  5. ^ Feldman (2004), p. 248.
  6. ^ Nir (2006).
  7. ^ Feldman (2004), p. 296.
  8. ^ Feldman (2004), pp. 300–301.
  9. ^ Feldman (2004), pp. 301–302.
  10. ^ Davar (1968).
  11. ^ a b Feldman (2004), p. 339.
  12. ^ a b Carmeli (1969).
  13. ^ a b Zohar (1969).
  14. ^ Eder (1969).
  15. ^ Feldman (2004), pp. 341–342.
  16. ^ Feldman (2004), p. 341.
  17. ^ Rabasa, Angel (2007). Building Moderate Muslim Networks. RAND Corporation. p. 101. ISBN 9780833042675.
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