Solomon Zeitlin (28 May 1886 or 31 May 1892 – 28 December 1976) was an American 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 or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

. 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. In 1904, while in Russia, he obtained

Semikhah ''Semikhah'' () is the traditional term for rabbiinic ordination in Judaism. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 CE. Si ...

.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 (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 called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

. 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 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 (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, 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, 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

Notes

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 American male non-fiction writers 20th-century Belarusian historians