 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Solomon Schechter" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Rabbi Solomon Schechter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1847-12-07)7 December 1847 |
| Died | 19 November 1915(1915-11-19) (aged 67) New York City, US |
| Nationality | Moldavian (until 1859) Romanian (after 1881) British American |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge University of Vienna, Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
Solomon Schechter (Hebrew:שניאור זלמן הכהן שכטר; 7 December 1847 – 19 November 1915) was aMoldavian-born British-Americanrabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and president of theUnited Synagogue of America, president of theJewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of AmericanConservative Judaism. He is an important figure inJewish studies andJewish history, particularly his study of theCairo Geniza.[1][2][3][4]
He was born inFocşani,Moldavia (now Romania), to Rabbi Yitzchok Hakohen, ashochet ("ritual slaughterer") and member ofChabadhasidim. He was named after its founder,Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Schechter received his early education from his father. Reportedly, he learned to readHebrew by age 3, and by 5 masteredChumash. He went to ayeshiva inPiatra Neamț at age 10 and at age thirteen studied with one of the majorTalmudic scholars, RabbiJoseph Saul Nathanson ofLemberg.[5] In his 20s, he went to the Rabbinical College inVienna, where he studied under the more modern Talmudic scholarMeir Friedmann, before moving on in 1879 to undertake further studies at theBerlin Hochschule für dieWissenschaft des Judentums and at theUniversity of Berlin. In 1882, he was invited to Britain, to be tutor ofrabbinics underClaude Montefiore in London.
In 1890, after the death ofSolomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, he was appointed to the faculty atCambridge University, serving as a lecturer in Talmudics and reader in Rabbinics.[6] The students of the Cambridge University Jewish Society hold an annual Solomon Schechter Memorial Lecture.
His greatest academic fame came from his excavation in 1896 of the papers of theCairo Geniza, an extraordinary collection of over 100,000 pages (around 300,000 documents) of rare Hebrew religious manuscripts and medieval Jewish texts that were preserved at an Egyptian synagogue. The find revolutionized the study of Medieval Judaism.
Jacob Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the Cairo Geniza, as well as the first to publicize the existence of theMidrash ha-Gadol. Schechter was alerted to the existence of the Geniza's papers in May 1896 by two Scottish sisters,Agnes and Margaret Smith (also known as Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson), who showed him some leaves from the Geniza that contained the Hebrew text ofSirach, which had for centuries only been known in Greek and Latin translation.[7] Letters, written at Schechter's prompting, by Agnes Smith toThe Athenaeum andThe Academy quickly revealed the existence of another nine leaves of the same manuscript in the possession ofArchibald Sayce at University of Oxford.[8] Schechter quickly found support for another expedition to the Cairo Geniza, and arrived there in December 1896 with an introduction from the Chief Rabbi,Hermann Adler, to the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Aaron Raphael Ben Shim'on.[9] He carefully selected for theCambridge University Library a trove three times the size of any other collection: this is now part of theTaylor-Schechter Collection. The find was instrumental in Schechter resolving a dispute withDavid Margoliouth as to the likely Hebrew language origins ofSirach.[10]
Charles Taylor took a great interest in Solomon Schechter's work in Cairo, and thegenizah fragments presented to the University of Cambridge are known as the Taylor-Schechter Collection.[11] He was joint editor with Schechter ofThe Wisdom of Ben Sira, 1899. He published separatelyCairo Genizah Palimpsests, 1900.
He became a Professor of Hebrew atUniversity College London in 1899 and remained until 1902 when he moved to theUnited States and was replaced byIsrael Abrahams.
In 1902, traditional Jews reacting against the progress of the AmericanReform Judaism movement, which was trying to establish an authoritative "synod" of American rabbis, recruited Schechter to become President of theJewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA).
Schechter served as the second President of the JTSA, from 1902 to 1915, during which time he founded the United Synagogue of America, later renamed as theUnited Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
He died in 1915, and was buried atMount Hebron Cemetery inFlushing, Queens.[12]
Schechter emphasized the centrality ofJewish law (Halakha) in Jewish life in his inaugural address as president of JTS in 1902:
Judaism is not a religion which does not oppose itself to anything in particular. Judaism is opposed to any number of things and says distinctly "thou shalt not." It permeates the whole of your life. It demands control over all of your actions, and interferes even with your menu. It sanctifies the seasons, and regulates your history, both in the past and in the future. Above all, it teaches that disobedience is the strength of sin. It insists upon the observance of both the spirit and of the letter; spirit without letter belongs to the species known to the mystics as "nude souls" (nishmatim artilain), wandering about in the universe without balance and without consistency...In a word, Judaism is absolutely incompatible with the abandonment of theTorah.
Schechter, on the other hand, believed in what he termed "Catholic Israel," meaning thatHalakha is formed and evolves based on the behavior of the Jewish people. The concept of modifying the law based on national consensus is an untraditional viewpoint.[according to whom?]
Schechter was an early advocate ofZionism. He was the chairman of the committee that edited theJewish Publication Society of America Version of theHebrew Bible.
Schechter's name is synonymous with the findings of the Cairo Geniza. He placed the JTSA on an institutional footing strong enough to endure for over a century. He became identified as the foremost personality of Conservative Judaism and is regarded as its founder. A network ofConservativeJewish day schools is named in his honor, as well as a summer camp in Olympia, Washington. There are several dozenSolomon Schechter Day Schools across the United States and Canada.
His daughter Ruth wed South African Jewish politicianMorris Alexander on June 10,1907.[13] They were married until 1935, when her radicalism and infidelity resulted in the couple's separation.[14][15]
