<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> The focus of this study, the religious scholar Isaac Breuer (1883–1946), is one of the most important figures in 20th century German-Jewish neo-orthodoxy. Like many of his contemporaries, Breuer interpreted the early 20th century world as a time of great crisis. The heart of his specifically orthodox Jewish philosophy of crisis was his promotion of halachic observance of the Torah.