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Schechter, Solomon, c 1847-1915 (hebraist)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: c 1847 - 1915

Biography

Solomon Schechter (c.1847-1915), Hebraist, was born in the small Romanian town of Focsani around 1847. As a teenager he moved on to Lemberg (Lwów), the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of eastern Galicia, and studied with the outstanding Talmudist and interpreter of Jewish religious law Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson. He entered the Vienna rabbinical seminary in 1875. By 1879 Schechter was ready to travel further along the road of Westernization, this time via the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, founded in Berlin in 1872. Schechter arrived in England in 1882 as Claude Montefiore's private tutor. While in England, Schechter established his scholarly credentials by the critical study of Hebrew manuscripts in the rich collections of that country, as well as in other parts of Europe. He was promoted from lecturer to reader in 1892 and made a DLitt in 1898. He is well known for the recovery of Hebrew manuscripts from the Ben-Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. Schechter died on 20 November 1915 in New York.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

 Fonds

Solomon Schechter: Letter to Francis Jenkinson, 1902

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.4251/1266
Scope and Contents From the Fonds:

Artificial collection of single item or small collection accessions. Mainly correspondence but includes other papers.

Dates: 1902
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).