![Marcus Center](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Marcus_Center.jpg)
Jacob Rader Marcus (March 5, 1896
–14 November 1995
) was a scholar of
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...
and a
Reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
rabbi.
Biography
Born in
Connellsville,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
into a traditional Jewish family and raised in
Homestead, Pennsylvania
Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the ...
, Marcus became interested in Reform Judaism at the age of 15. At that time, he traveled to
Hebrew Union College (HUC), in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, to begin his rabbinical training.
After a two-year interim during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, when he served in the American military, Marcus returned to graduate studies in Cincinnati. After receiving rabbinical ordination in 1920, Marcus was appointed to the faculty of HUC, where he began teaching biblical history. In 1922, Marcus traveled to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
to study Jewish history with
Ismar Elbogen
Ismar Elbogen (September 1, 1874 – August 1, 1943) was a German rabbi, scholar and historian.
Biography
Yitzhak Moshe (Itamar) Elbogen was born in Posen. He was taught by his uncle, Jacob Levy, author of the "'", and then attended the gymn ...
, who awarded Marcus a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1925. In that year, Marcus married Antoinette Brody in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. After briefly studying at
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in 1926, Marcus returned to Cincinnati, where he lectured at HUC consistently until 1995. In 1959, he was named the ''Adolph S. Ochs Professor of American Jewish History''. In 1965, he was appointed to HUC's ''Milton and Hattie Kutz Distinguished Service Chair in American Jewish History''.
Marcus devoted most of his post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
historical career to American Jewish history and founded th
American Jewish Archivesin Cincinnati in 1947 on the campus of HUC. He is, perhaps, best known for his work on Medieval European Jewish history, ''The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book: 315-1791'', first published in 1938.
In the 1970s, while director of the American Jewish Archives, Marcus publicly shared the account of
Regina Jonas
Regina Jonas (; German: ''Regine Jonas'';As documented by ''Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Laufendenummer 892'' which reads: "''In front of the signed registrar appeared today... Wolff Jonas... a ...
in response to the ordination of Rabbi
Sally Priesand
Sally Jane Priesand (born June 27, 1946) is America's first female rabbi ordained by a rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Priesand was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-J ...
in 1972. Marcus informed ''
The American Israelite
''The American Israelite'' is an English-language Jewish newspaper published weekly in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1854 as ''The Israelite'' and assuming its present name in 1874, it is the longest-running English-language Jewish newspaper sti ...
'' in July 1973 that the only other known Jewish woman to receive ordination was Regina Jonas of Berlin but that she perished at the hands of the Nazi regime. Marcus also provided the title of Jonas' thesis, "Can a Woman Become a Rabbi?".
Marcus died on the eve of November 14, 1995, at the age of 99.
[
Marcus was the mentor of ]Jonathan Sarna
Jonathan D. Sarna (born 10 January 1955) is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director othe Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis Universit ...
.
Works
* The Rise and Destiny of the German Jew. Cincinnati: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1934.
* The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315-1791. Cincinnati: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1938.
* Communal Sick-Care in the German Ghetto. Cincinnati: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1947
*Early American Jewry, Volume 1: The Jews of New York, New England, and Canada, 1649-1794. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951.
* Early American Jewry, Volume 2: The Jews of Pennsylvania and the South, 1655-1790. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1953.
* On Love, Marriage, Children...and Death, Too: Intimate Glimpses into the Lives of American Jews in a Bygone Age as * Told in Their Own Words. Cincinnati: Society of Jewish Bibliophiles, 1964.
* Studies in American Jewish History: Studies and Addresses. Cincinnati: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1969.
* ''The Colonial American Jew, 1492–1776: Volume I, II, and III.'' Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1970
* ''Israel Jacobson: The Founder of the Reform Movement in Judaism.'' Cincinnati: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1972.
* ''The American Jewish Woman, A Documentary History.'' Hoboken, NJ: Ktav 1981.
* ''To Count a People: American Jewish Population Data, 1585 — 1984.'' Lanham, MD: UP of America, 1990.
* ''United States Jewry 1776–1985. Vol. 1: The Sephardic Period'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989. 820 pp.
*''United States Jewry 1776–1985. Vol. 2: The Germanic Period.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. 419 pp.
*''United States Jewry 1776–1985. Vol. 3: The Germanic Period, Part 2.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993. 925 pp.
* ''United States Jewry 1776–1985. Vol. 4: The East European Period: The Emergence of the American Jew; Epilogue.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993. 955 pp.
References
Further reading
* Butler, Jon. "Jacob Rader Marcus and the Revival of Early American History, 1930–1960." ''American Jewish Archives'' 50#1/2 (1998): 28-39
online
* Rischin, Moses. "Review essay" ''American Jewish History'' (1997) 85#2 pp 174–80.
* Sussman, Lance J. "'Historian of the Jewish People': A Historiographical Reevaluation of the Writings of Jacob R. Marcus." ''American Jewish Archives'' 50.1/2 (1998): 10-21
online
External links
Biography on AJA
Books written by Marcus
on Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...
Jacob Rader Marcus' childhood in Homestead
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, Jacob Rader
Rabbis from Cincinnati
American Reform rabbis
Hebrew Union College alumni
Hebrew Union College faculty
Jewish American philanthropists
1896 births
1995 deaths
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American rabbis