10:03 PM
Gil Student
Aaron Chorin, the (in)famous rabbinic defender of early Reform, was known in Orthodox circles as Acher, an acronym for Aaron Chorin Rabbiner and a clear reference to Elisha ben Avuya, the Tanna who left Jewish observance. Two online biographies of him can be found here and here.
I came across this interesting piece of information:
In circles close to the moderate reform movement, a very remarkable and undoubtedly authentic tradition had it that Aron Chorin, the first pioneer of reformed Jewry in Hungary was in his youth a member of the Sabbatian group in Prague.Source: Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 304
