Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887 – September 19, 1974), born Zvi Hershel ben Mendel Wolfson, was an American philosopher and historian atHarvard University, where he became the first chair of aJewish Studies Center in theUnited States. Best known for his seminal work on the Jewish philosopherPhilo, Wolfson also produced major studies onCrescas andSpinoza, examinedAverroes andMaimonides in the context of medieval and early modern thought, and wrote on theKalam, theChurch Fathers, and the foundations ofWestern religion. He aimed to bridgeJewish philosophy withChristian philosophy andIslamic philosophy.[1] As the firstJudaica scholar to spend his entire career at a top university,[2] Wolfson embodied the ambitions of the 19th-centuryWissenschaft des Judentums (science of Judaism, or Jewish studies) movement.
Wolfson was born to Sarah Savitsky and Max Mendel Wolfson inAstryna (Yiddish: Ostrin),Vilna Governorate (in present-dayShchuchyn district,Grodno Region,Belarus), and in his youth he studied at theSlabodka yeshiva under RabbiMoshe Mordechai Epstein. He emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1903. They settled in New York's East Side. Wolfson was invited to teach Hebrew to children inScranton, Pennsylvania, which he did for three years while earning his diploma from Scranton High School. Wolfson took the entrance examination forHarvard College and won admission.[3]
In September 1908, Wolfson arrived inCambridge, Massachusetts to attendHarvard University, where, it would turn out, he would remain for the rest of his career. He earned his Bachelor's degree in 1911, Master's in 1912, and Ph.D. in 1915.[4] His only absences were the years 1912–1914, when he held a traveling fellowship from Harvard which enabled him to study and do research in Europe, and some months in 1918 when he was conscripted into the Army, and together withNorbert Wiener received basic training atFort Slocum, New York, and was then transferred to the Adjutant General's Office in Washington, D.C..
Wolfson was offered an appointment as annual instructor in Jewish philosophy and Literature atHarvard University in 1915, provided he could find outside funding for his salary, which judgesJulian Mack andIrving Lehman took responsibility for. He was promoted to faculty instructor and then Assistant Professor in 1921. In 1925 his position was to be terminated unless he could obtain permanent outside funding.Lucius Littauer stepped up and endowed him a permanent chair in his father's honor, the Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy.[3] Wolfson was the first professor in any American university to occupy a chair devoted solely to Jewish studies.[4]
Wolfson held the chair from 1925 until his retirement in 1958. He was a student and friend both ofGeorge Santayana andGeorge Foot Moore.R.D. Crouse, the scholar of early medieval theology, was among his students. He received honorary degrees from 10 different universities (Twersky 1975), and was a founding member and president of theAmerican Academy for Jewish Research. Wolfson never married. He died inCambridge, Massachusetts on September 19, 1974. His brother Nathan survived him by 27 years, living to age 101 until 2001. Another notable family member was his nephew Erwin S. Wolfson who developed thePan Am Building in Manhattan in 1960.
Wolfson was a tireless scholar.[5] About himTwersky (1975) writes, "He was reminiscent of an old-fashionedgaon, transposed into a modern university setting, studying day and night, resisting presumptive attractions and distractions, honors and chores, with a tenacity which sometimes seemed awkward and antisocial." He spent vast amounts of time secluded in theWidener Library pursuing his research.Schwarz (1965) writes that even in his retirement, Wolfson was "still the first person to enter Widener library in the morning and the last to leave it at night."
Wolfson wrote works including a translation and commentary onHasdai Crescas'Or Adonai, the philosophy of the church fathers, the repercussions of theKalam onJudaism, and works onSpinoza,Philo, andAverroes. The best-known of these works are listed below, their publication in several instances—among them the work on Philo—having been considered scholarly events of the first magnitude.
Wolfson was additionally known as a "daring" scholar, one who was not afraid to put forward a bold hypothesis with limited evidential support. In his work Wolfson therefore often chooses bold conjecture over safe, but boring, analyses (Twersky 1975).
A complete bibliography of Wolfson's work can be found inSchwarz (1965). He was known principally, as mentioned above, for crossing all artificial boundaries of scholarship, as best revealed by the titles of some of his papers:
