Solomon Grayzel (1896–1980) was an American historian who authored '' A History of the Jews'' and testified as an expert witness in ''

Abington School District v. Schempp ''Abington School District v. Schempp'', 374 U.S. 203 (1963), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Edward Schempp on behalf of his son Ellery Schempp, and declared that school-spo ...

'', the case that declared school-sponsored

Bible reading In Christian communities, Bible study is the study of the Bible by people as a personal religious or spiritual practice. In many Christian traditions, Bible study, coupled with Christian prayer, is known as doing devotions or devotional acts ...

in American public schools to be unconstitutional. Among other topics, his scholarly research focused on the relationship between the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and the Jews, including '' The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century'' and many other scholarly essays and books on the topic. Grayzel was born on February 18, 1896 in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

, a major hub of Eastern European Jewry prior to the Holocaust which is now the capital of Belarus. He emigrated to the United States as an adolescent, settling in the Brownsville section of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, with his family in 1908. Grayzel received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the City College of New York in 1917 and a Master of Arts degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1920. He received his ''

semikhah Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 ...

'' (rabbinical ordination) from the Conservative Movement at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1921, and earned a Ph.D. in history from Dropsie College in 1926. While working on his doctorate, Grayzel took his first and only full-time pulpit position at Congregation Beth El in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

. He was the editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society from 1939-1966. ----

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grayzel, Solomon 1896 births 1980 deaths Belarusian Jews American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Jewish American historians Historians of Jews and Judaism Writers from Minsk People from Brownsville, Brooklyn Writers from Brooklyn City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients Dropsie College alumni Belarusian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American rabbis Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers