PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: Judaism
Christian Apostle
St. Paul the Apostle one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity. In his own day, although he was...
German religious philosopher
Martin Buber was a German-Jewish religious philosopher, biblical translator and interpreter, and master of German prose style. Buber’s philosophy was centred on the encounter, or dialogue, of man with...
Jewish philosopher
Philo Judaeus was a Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher, the most important representative of Hellenistic Judaism. His writings provide the clearest view of this development of Judaism in the Diaspora. As...
Hebrew prophet
Jeremiah was a Hebrew prophet, reformer, and author of a biblical book that bears his name. He was closely involved in the political and religious events of a crucial era in the history of the ancient...
German nun
Edith Stein ; canonized October 11, 1998; feast day August 9) was a Roman Catholic convert from Judaism, Carmelite nun, philosopher, and spiritual writer who was executed by the Nazis because of her Jewish...
British philanthropist
Sir Moses Montefiore, Baronet was an Italian-born businessman who was noted for his philanthropy and support of Jewish rights. Scion of an old Italian Jewish merchant family, Montefiore was taken to England...
American composer
Ernest Bloch was a composer whose music reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes as well as European post-Romantic traditions. His students included Roger Sessions and Randall Thompson. Bloch studied...
king of Judah
Josiah was the king of Judah (c. 640–609 bce), who set in motion a reformation that bears his name and that left an indelible mark on Israel’s religious traditions (2 Kings 22–23:30). Josiah was the grandson...
Polish rabbi and scholar
Jonathan Eybeschütz was a rabbi and religious scholar noted for his bitter quarrel with Rabbi Jacob Emden, a dispute that split European Jewry and ended the effectiveness of rabbinic excommunication during...
French Judaic scholar
Jacob ben Meir Tam was a French Jew, an outstanding Talmudic authority of his time, who was responsible for a series of far-reaching decisions governing relationships between Christians and Jews in medieval...
American philanthropist
Rebecca Gratz American philanthropist who was a proponent of Jewish education and a pioneer in establishing charitable institutions. Gratz grew up a celebrated beauty in a home frequently visited by the...
Austrian composer
Salomon Sulzer was an Austrian Jewish cantor, considered the most important composer of synagogue music in the 19th century. Sulzer was trained in cantorial singing from childhood, studying in Austria...
Jewish scholar
Amram bar Sheshna was the head of the Talmudic academy at Sura, Babylonia, traditionally regarded as the first Jewish authority to write a complete domestic and synagogal liturgy for the year, the Siddur...
Russian author and philosopher
Aaron David Gordon was a Zionist writer and philosopher who inculcated the idea of a return of Jews to Palestine as agriculturists. After working for some 20 years as a minor official for the estate of...
British political activist
Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1st Baronet was a financier and Britain’s first Jewish baronet, whose work for Jewish emancipation in that nation made possible the passage of the Jewish Disabilities Bill of 1859,...
British biblical scholar
Christian David Ginsburg Hebrew and biblical scholar who was the foremost authority in England on the Masorah (authoritative Jewish tradition concerning the correct text of the Hebrew Bible). Ginsburg,...
German controversialist
Johannes Pfefferkorn was a German controversialist—a Christianized Jew—and opponent of Jewish literature, whose dispute with the Humanist and Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin (q.v.) was a European cause célèbre...
French scholar
Ernest Renan was a French philosopher, historian, and scholar of religion, a leader of the school of critical philosophy in France. Renan was educated at the ecclesiastical college in his native town of...
Jewish priest, scholar, and historian
Flavius Josephus was a Jewish priest, scholar, and historian who wrote valuable works on the Jewish revolt of 66–70 and on earlier Jewish history. His major books are History of the Jewish War (75–79),...
Jewish philosopher, scholar, and physician
Moses Maimonides was a Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary...
Jewish exegete and philosopher
Saʿadia ben Joseph was a Jewish exegete, philosopher, and polemicist whose influence on Jewish literary and communal activities made him one of the most important Jewish scholars of his time. His unique...
German philosopher
Franz Rosenzweig was a German-Jewish religious Existentialist who, through his fresh handling of traditional religious themes, became one of the most influential modern Jewish theologians. In 1913, although...
Jewish sage and rabbinic founder
Akiva ben Yosef was a Jewish sage, a principal founder of rabbinic Judaism. He introduced a new method of interpreting Jewish oral law (Halakha), thereby laying the foundation of what was to become the...
German-Jewish philosopher and scholar
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher, critic, and Bible translator and commentator who greatly contributed to the efforts of Jews to assimilate to the German bourgeoisie. The son of an impoverished...
French philosopher
Emmanuel Lévinas Lithuanian-born French philosopher renowned for his powerful critique of the preeminence of ontology (the philosophical study of being) in the history of Western philosophy, particularly...
Russian historian
Simon Markovich Dubnow was a Jewish historian who introduced a sociological emphasis into the study of Jewish history, particularly that of eastern Europe. Dubnow early ceased to practice Jewish rituals....
German scholar
Leopold Zunz German historian of Jewish literature who is often considered the greatest Jewish scholar of the 19th century. He began (1819) the movement called Wissenschaft des Judentums (“Science of Judaism”),...
Dutch scholar
Manasseh ben Israel was a major Hebraic scholar of the Jewish community of Amsterdam and the founder of the modern Jewish community in England. Manasseh was born into a family of Marranos (Jews of Spain...
chief rabbi of Palestine
Abraham Isaac Kook was a Jewish mystic, fervent Zionist, and the first chief rabbi of Palestine under the League of Nations mandate to Great Britain to administer Palestine. After serving as rabbi in a...
British rabbi
Joseph Herman Hertz was the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and author of books on Judaism and of influential commentaries on the Bible expressing a fundamentalist viewpoint....
Jewish theologian
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Jewish theologian and philosopher, noted for his presentation of the prophetic and mystical aspects of Judaism and for his attempt to construct a modern philosophy of religion...
Jewish philosopher and psychologist
Moritz Lazarus was a Jewish philosopher and psychologist, a leading opponent of anti-Semitism in his time and a founder of comparative psychology. The son of a rabbinical scholar, Lazarus studied Hebrew...
American rabbi and scholar
Solomon Schechter was an outstanding authority on the Talmud, and a researcher who discovered important ancient documents. He was also a leader of Conservative Judaism in the United States. Schechter studied...
German philosopher
Hermann Cohen was a German-Jewish philosopher and founder of the Marburg school of neo-Kantian philosophy, which emphasized “pure” thought and ethics rather than metaphysics. (Read Peter Singer’s Britannica...
British scholar
Israel Abrahams was one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his time, who wrote a number of enduring works on Judaism, particularly Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896). In 1902, after teaching...
American scholar
Cyrus Adler was a scholar, educator, editor, and Conservative Jewish leader who had great influence on American Jewish life in his time. Adler received his Ph.D. in Semitics in 1887 from Johns Hopkins...
European scholar and philosopher
Nachman Krochmal was a Jewish scholar and philosopher; his major, seminal work, Moreh nevukhe ha-zeman (1851; “Guide for the Perplexed of Our Time”), made pioneering contributions in the areas of Jewish...
American Judaic scholar
Meyer Waxman Jewish literary historian, rabbi, educator, and scholar. Trained in Ḥasidic seminaries in Mir and Slutzk, Waxman continued his studies, after emigrating to the United States in 1905, at New...
British philanthropist and historian
Frederic David Mocatta was a British philanthropist, historian, bibliophile, and patron of learning who subsidized the publication of a number of major works of Jewish literature. From 1857 to 1874, Mocatta...
German historian
Heinrich Graetz was a German author of a major history of the Jews that became the first standard work in the field. Greatly influenced by his studies with the renowned scholar Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch,...
American religious philosopher and rabbi
Samuel Hirsch was a religious philosopher, rabbi, and a leading advocate of radical Reform Judaism. He was among the first to propose holding Jewish services on Sunday. Educated at the universities of...
Italian rabbi and writer
Leone Modena was an Italian rabbi, preacher, poet, scholar, gambling addict, and polemicist who wrote an important attack on the Sefer ha-zohar (“Book of Splendour”), the chief text of Kabbala, the influential...
Jewish physician and historian
Abraham ben David Halevi ibn Daud was a physician and historian who was the first Jewish philosopher to draw on Aristotle’s writings in a systematic fashion. He is probably more esteemed today for his...
European scholar
Isaac ben Moses Of Vienna was a medieval codifier of Jewish law (Halakha) whose vast compilation, Or Zaruʿa (“Light Is Sown”), was widely quoted in later Halakhic works. Or Zaruʿa is also valued by historians...
Babylonian-Jewish scholar
Samuel of Nehardea was a Babylonian amora (scholar), head of the important Jewish academy at Nehardea. His teachings, along with those of Rav (Abba Arika, head of the academy at Sura), figure prominently...
Lithuanian-American scholar
Louis Ginzberg was a Lithuanian-born American Judaic scholar. Ginzberg studied the Talmud at several rabbinical schools, as well as philosophy, history, and Oriental languages at three universities, and...
British author
Grace Aguilar was a poet, novelist, and writer on Jewish history and religion, best known for her numerous sentimental novels of domestic life, especially for Home Influence (1847) and The Mother’s Recompense...
Spanish philosopher
Joseph Albo was a Jewish philosopher and theologian from Spain who is noted for his classic work of Jewish dogmatics, Sefer ha-ʿiqqarim (1485; “Book of Principles”). Little is known of Albo’s life. He...
Russian Hebraist and community leader
David, Baron Günzburg was a prominent Orientalist and Hebraist, Russian Jewish community leader, and bibliophile. The son of Horace Günzburg and the grandson of Joseph Günzburg, both noted philanthropists,...
Jewish philosopher and physician
Joseph ben Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov was a Jewish philosopher and Castilian court physician who attempted to mediate the disdain shown for philosophy by contemporary Jewish scholars by undertaking a reconciliation...
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