Morris Jastrow, Jr
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Morris Jastrow Jr. (August 13, 1861 – June 22, 1921) was a Polish-born American orientalist and
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
associated with the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
.


Biography

He was born in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
in
Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
, and came to
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
in 1866 when his father,
Marcus Jastrow Marcus Jastrow (June 5, 1829 – October 13, 1903) was a Poland-born American Talmudic scholar and rabbi, most famously known for his authorship of the popular and comprehensive ''Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Mid ...
, a renowned Talmudic scholar, accepted a position as Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom. He was educated in the schools of Philadelphia and graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1881. His original intention was to become a
rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
. For this purpose, he carried on theological studies at the first modern rabbinical seminary in Central Europe, the newly-established
Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (official name: ) was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Frankel (businessman), Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. It was the first modern rabbinical ...
in the equally newly-established
German State The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...
, while pursuing the study of
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...
at German universities. Jastrow traveled to Europe and studied at
Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
, where he received his Ph.D. in 1884. He then spent another year in the study of
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...
at the Sorbonne, the
Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...
and the École des Langues Orientales Levant Vivantes. On his return to the United States in 1885, he was appointed assistant to his father in Philadelphia, which position he voluntarily resigned after one year. His farewell sermon, entitled "Jews and Judaism" was understood to be a personal repudiation of traditional Judaism. Jastrow went on to devote himself entirely to linguistic and archaeological studies and gradually extended his field to include the history of religions. He joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1885 as an instructor of Semitic languages, and became professor of Semitic languages in 1891. In 1888, he became a
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming librarian-in-chief in 1898. He was president of the
American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...
1914–15, and of the
Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...
in 1916. He died in
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania Jenkintown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is approximately north of Center City Philadelphia. History The community was named for William Jenkins, a Welsh pioneer settler. The borough was settled in abou ...
, in 1921. He contributed articles to, and was one of the editors of the scholarly ''
The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...
'' published 1901-1906 by the Jewish Publication Society; he was, as well, a contributor to the ''
Encyclopaedia Biblica ''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encycloped ...
'' (1903), the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' (11th edition), '' The New International Encyclopedia'', and ''
Webster's Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the US English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), a US lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...
''. He edited a fragment of the Babylonian Dibbarra Epic (1891); the
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
text of the grammatical treatises of
Judah ben David Hayyuj Judah ben David Hayyuj (, ) was a Maghrebi Jew of Al-Andalus born in North Africa. He was a linguist and is regarded as the father of Hebrew scientific grammar. Judah was born in Fez, then part of the Fatimid Caliphate, about 945. At an early ...
(1897); ''Selected Essays of James Darmesteter'' (with a memoir; translation of the essays from the original French by Helen Bachman Jastrow (Mrs. Morris Jastrow, Jr.), 1895); and a series of ''Handbooks on the History of Religion''. A bibliography of his books, monographs and papers, covering the years 1885–1916, was compiled and published (for private circulation) by A. T. Clay and J. A. Montgomery. Among his students was Pezavia O'Connell, the first
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
scholar to earn a PhD in Semitic languages. In 1898, O'Connell wrote a dissertation under Jastrow's supervision at the University of Pennsylvania entitled, ''Synonyms of the Unclean & the Clean in Hebrew''.


Works

* ** Volume 2 was published in 1912. This work is an enlarged and entirely rewritten German edition of the English edition, together with a separate volume of illustrations bearing on the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians (3 volumes altogether). * (also published NYC: Charles Scribner's Sons) * * * ''Babylonian-Assyrian Birth Omens and Their Cultural Significance'' (1914) * ''The Civil Law of
Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
and
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
'' (1915) * * * * * * ''The Eastern Question and its Solution'' (1920) * * ''An Assyrian Law Code'' (1921) Ann Arbor: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1921.


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jastrow, Morris, Jr. 1861 births 1921 deaths American Assyriologists American librarians American male non-fiction writers American orientalists American people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish American non-fiction writers Leipzig University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty