Théodore Ratisbonne
Théodore Ratisbonne · Historical & Religious Figures
Fondateur de la congrégation Notre-Dame de Sion, aujourd'hui vouée au dialogue judéo-chrétien
28 décembre 1802 — 10 janvier 1884
Strasbourg (France) — mort à Paris
Théodore Ratisbonne is recognized among Jewish contributors to Historical & Religious Figures — Fondateur de la congrégation Notre-Dame de Sion, aujourd'hui vouée au dialogue judéo-chrétien
Origins and early life
Théodore Ratisbonne was born at Strasbourg on 28 December 1802, the second of thirteen children of Auguste Ratisbonne and Adélaïde Cerfbeer, a notable Alsatian Jewish banking family descended from Herz Cerfbeer, the Jewish community leader who obtained civic rights for the Jews of Alsace before the Revolution.
Work and career
This fiche states plainly that he did not remain Jewish: he was baptised a Catholic in 1827, at the age of twenty-four, and ordained a priest in 1830, taking the name Marie-Théodore. He is recorded here on the ground of birth, as the site records everyone born Jewish who later held another faith, and both he and his younger brother Alphonse, whose own conversion in Rome in 1842 was widely publicised, have had dedicated entries in the Jewish Encyclopedia since 1906.
Later years
With Alphonse he founded in 1843 the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, together with a women's congregation, originally directed at the conversion of Jews, and he served as its superior until his death. The site records what the congregation was founded for and what it became: after the Second Vatican Council and the declaration Nostra Aetate of 1965, Notre-Dame de Sion renounced any aim of conversion and redefined its whole purpose as the study of Judaism and the fight against antisemitism, work it now carries out in Jerusalem, Rome and Paris. He wrote a history of Saint Bernard and works of religious education, and he died in Paris on 10 January 1884.
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Source: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12549-ratisbonne
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Fondateur de la congrégation Notre-Dame de Sion, aujourd'hui vouée au dialogue judéo-chrétien
Source: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12549-ratisbonne