Samuel Holdheim (1806 – 22 August 1860) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the more extreme leaders of the early Reform Movement in Judaism.

The son of rigidly traditional parents, Holdheim was early inducted into rabbinical literature according to the methods in vogue at the Talmudical yeshivas.

Before he was able to speak German with even moderate correctness, he had become a master of Talmudic argumentation, and his fame had traveled far beyond the limits of his native place.

This reputation secured for him employment as teacher of young boys in private families both in Kempen and in larger cities of his native province.

Holdheim went to Prague and subsequently to Berlin to study philosophy and humanities; and his keen intellect, combined with his eagerness to learn, made it possible for him to reach his goal in an incredibly short time, though the lack of preliminary systematic preparation left its imprint upon his mind, to a certain degree, to the last.

In the preface to his Gottesdienstliche Vorträge (Frankfurt (Oder), 1839) he appealed both to the government to accord the modern rabbinate the dignity due to it, and to the congregations to cease regarding the rabbi as an expert in Jewish casuistry mainly charged with the duty of answering she'elot (ritual questions) and inquiries concerning dietary laws.

He insisted upon the recognition of the rabbi as preacher and teacher, who at the same time gives attention to the practical requirements of his office as the expert in Talmudical law.

In his pulpit discourses belonging to this period the intention is plain to steer clear of mere rationalistic moralizing, on the one hand, and dry legalizing and unscientific speculation (in the style of the old derashah), on the other.

He also repeatedly took pains to arouse his congregation to help carry out Abraham Geiger's and Ludwig Philippson's project of founding a Jewish theological faculty.

Holdheim now became a contributor to the Jewish periodicals (e.g., Philippson's Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums and Jost's Israelitische Annalen).

In the former of these papers Holdheim formulates the principle which is basic to his position and that of other Reformers: Judaism is not a religion of dead creed, but of living deeds.

In the meantime Holdheim had received the degree of PhD from the University of Leipzig, and had come to be looked upon by congregations as well as by Jewish scholars as a leader (see Orient.

In this, he pleads for the abolition of the antiquated Jewish marriage and divorce regulations mainly on the ground that the Jews do not constitute a political nation.

Holdheim, in his Ueber die Beschneidung zunächst in religiös-dogmatischer Beziehung (Schwerin and Berlin, 1844), takes the position that circumcision is not, like baptism, a sacrament of initiation, but is merely a command like any other.

While the Verein assumed unlimited possibilities of development, according to Holdheim the Mosaic element, after the elimination of the national, is eternal.

These ceremonies lose their meaning and are rendered obsolete the moment Israel no longer requires special protection for its monotheistic distinctness.

For him the essential element of a true Sabbath was not worship, but rest (see his Offene Briefe über die Dritte Rabbinerversammlung, in Israelit, 1846, Nos.

Holdheim felt prompted to treat some of these at greater length, and therefore in quick succession he published the following essays: Was lehrt das Rabbinische Judenthum über den Eid?

He also wrote a history of the Reformgenossenschaft (Geschichte der Jüdischen Reformgemeinde, 1857) and a more ambitious work (in Hebrew) on the rabbinical and Karaite interpretations of the marriage laws (Ma'amar ha-Ishut, 1860).

Holdheim was laid to rest among the great dead of the Berlin congregation, Abraham Geiger preaching the funeral oration.