GRAETZ, HEINRICH (18171891)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 315 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GRAETZ, HEINRICH (18171891) , the foremost Jewish historian of modern times, was born in Posen in 1817 and died at

Munich

MUNICH (Ger. Munchen)

in 1891. He received a desultory education, and was largely self-taught. An important stage in his development was the period of three years that he spent at Oldenburg as assistant and pupil of S. R. Hirsch, whose enlightened orthodoxy was for a time very attractive to Graetz. Later on Graetz proceeded to Breslau, where he matriculated in 1842. Breslau was then becoming the headquarters of Abraham Geiger, the leader of Jewish reform. Graetz was repelled by Geiger's attitude, and though he subsequently took radical views of the Bible and tradition (which made him an opponent of Hirsch), Graetz remained a life-long foe to reform. He contended for freedom of thought; he had no desire to fight for freedom of ritual practice. He momentarily thought of entering the rabbinate, but he was unsuited to that career. For some years he supported himself as a tutor. He had previously won repute by his published essays, but in 1853 the publication of the fourth volume of his history of the

Jews

made him famous. This fourth volume (the first to be published) dealt with the

Talmud

TALMUD

. It was a brilliant resuscitation of the past. Graetz's skill in piecing together detached fragments of information, his vast learning and extraordinary

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

acumen, were equalled by his vivid power of presenting personalities. No Jewish book of the 19th century produced such a sensation as this, and Graetz won at a bound the position he still occupies as recognized master of Jewish history. His Geschichte der Juden, begun in 1853, was completed in 1875; new editions of the several volumes were frequent. The

work

WORK

has been translated into many languages; it appeared in English in five volumes in 18911895. The History is defective in its lack of objectivity; Graetz's judgments are sometimes biassed, and in particular he lacks sympathy with mysticism. But the history is a

work

WORK

of genius. Simultaneously with the publication of vol. iv. Graetz was appointed on the staff of the new Breslau

Seminary

SEMINARY (Lat. seminarium, from semen, seed)

, of which the first director was Z. Frankel. Graetz passed the remainder of his life in this office; in 1869 he was created professor by the government, and also lectured at the Breslau University. Graetz attained considerable repute as a biblical critic. He was the author of many bold conjectures as to the date of Ruth,

Ecclesiastes

ECCLESIASTES (Heb. n5np, Kohelet, "Koheleth "; Sept. EKKarlveamrils; Jerome concionator)

, Esther and other biblical books. His

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

edition of the Psalms (18821883) was his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

contribution to biblical exegesis, but after his death Professor Bacher edited Graetz's Emendationes to many parts of the Hebrew scriptures.
A full bibliography of Graetz's works is given in the Jewish Quarterly

Review

REVIEW (Fr. revue, from revoir, to see again, Lat. re and videre)

, iv. 194; a memoir of Graetz is also to be found there. Another full memoir was prefixed to the " index " volume of the History in the American re-issue of the English

translation

TRANSLATION

in six volumes (Philadelphia, 1898). (I. A.)

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