Solomon Zeitlin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Solomon Zeitlin, שְׁניאור זלמן צײטלין, Шломо Цейтлин ''Shlomo Cejtlin'' (''Tseitlin, Tseytlin'') (28 May 1886 or 31 May 1892, in
Chashniki Chashniki ( be, Чашнікі, Čašniki, russian: Чáшники, pl, Czaśniki, lt, Čašnikai) is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus, famous for the Battle of Ula during Livonian War and Battle of Czasniki that took place during the Frenc ...
,
Vitebsk Governorate Vitebsk Governorate (russian: Витебская губерния, ) was an administrative unit ( guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting the Byelorussia Governorate and ...
(now in
Vitebsk Region Vitebsk Region or Vitebsk Oblast or Viciebsk Voblasts ( be, Ві́цебская во́бласць, ''Viciebskaja voblasć'', ; rus, Ви́тебская о́бласть, Vitebskaya oblast, ˈvʲitʲɪpskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a region (oblast ...
) in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
– 28 December 1976, in the
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 territorie ...
) was a Jewish historian, Talmudic scholar and in his time the world's leading authority on the Second Commonwealth, also known as the
Second Temple period The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted approximately 600 years (516 BCE - 70 CE), during which the Second Temple existed. It started with the return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple, while it ended with the First Jewis ...
. His work ''The Rise and Fall of the Judean State'' is about the Second Temple period.


Biography


Russia

Born in Chasniki, Russia, he attended the Gymnasium and later the Academy of Baron Günzburg. There he met and formed a lifelong friendship with
Zalman Shazar Zalman Shazar ( he, זלמן שז"ר; born Shneur Zalman Rubashov; be, Шнэер За́льман Рубашо́ў; russian: Шне́ер За́лмен Рубашо́в; November 24, 1889 – October 5, 1974) was an Israeli politician, author ...
. In 1904, while in Russia, he obtained
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 C ...
.Solomon Zeitlin (May 28, 1886 – December 28, 1976) by David Weiss Halivni and Sidney B. Hoenig; Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research


Paris and USA

In Paris in 1916 he was awarded a Th.D. from the École Rabbinique and an Élève Titulaire de la Section des Sciences Religeuses from the University of Paris. In 1915 he emigrated to America. He received his doctorate in 1917 and became professor of Rabbinics. Zeitlin taught at Yeshiva College in New York for two years before going to Dropsie College in Philadelphia, where he served as a Fellow in Rabbinics. He edited the academic journal, the
Jewish Quarterly Review ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Jewish studies. It is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Pen ...
(JQR)(1940–1976). With A.A. Neuman he co-edited volumes 31–57, and continued as sole editor until his death in 1976. He controversially devoted considerable page-space of the JQR between 1949 and 1964 to engage in scholarly claim and counterclaim over the authenticity and pre-Christian origin of the
Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...
. Publishing some two dozen articles on the subject, he remained convinced of their late date. In the JQR July 1961 edition he published an article "Jewish Rights in Palestine" by British philosopher and historian
Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...
and his own response "Jewish Rights in Eretz Israel (Palestine)" where he rebukes Toynbee for lack of scholarship. In addition to history he taught
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
, wrote more than 400 articles and books and was instrumental in organizing the American Academy of Jewish Research.


Private life

He never married and had no immediate survivors.


Works

* "An Historical Study of the Canonization of the Hebrew Scripture", ''American Academy for Jewish Research'', Vol.3, 1931–1932. * ''Who Crucified Jesus?'', New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1942, 1947. * "The Hoax of the 'Slavonic Josephus'". ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'', New Series. 39/2 (October 1948): 172–177. * ''Maimonides – A Biography'', New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1955. * ''The Rise and Fall of the Judean State: A Political, Social and Religious History of the Second Commonwealth''. New York:
Jewish Publication Society of America The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by reform Rabbi Joseph Krausko ...
, 1967. * ''The Book of Judith'': Greek text / with an English translation, commentary and critical notes by Morton S. Enslin; edited with a general introduction and appendices by Solomon Zeitlin. * "The Origin of the Synagogue", ''American Academy for Jewish Research'', Vol.2, 1930–1931. * "The Tobias Family and the Hasmoneans", ''American Academy for Jewish Research'', Vol.4, 1932–1933. * ''Studies in the Early History of Judaism'', (four volumes), KTAV Publication House, 1978.


References

*


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeitlin, Solomon 19th-century births 1976 deaths People from Chashniki People from Vitebsk Governorate Belarusian Jews Belarusian emigrants to the United States Belarusian male writers Male non-fiction writers 20th-century Belarusian historians