Hermann Strack
Encyclopedia
Hermann Leberecht Strack (1848–1922) was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Protestant theologian and Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...

; born at Berlin May 6, 1848. Since 1877 he was assistant professor of Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

 exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...

 and Semitic languages
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...

 at the University of Berlin. He was the foremost Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 authority in Germany on Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

ic and rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term...

, and studied rabbinics under Steinschneider. Since the reappearance of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 in Germany, Strack had been the champion of the Jews against the attacks of such men as Hofprediger Adolf Stoecker
Adolf Stoecker
Adolf Stoecker was the court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm II, a politician, and a German Lutheran theologian who founded one of the first Christian Social Gospel political parties in Germany, the Christian Social Party.-Life:Stoecker was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony.A staunch Protestant,...

, Professor August Rohling
August Rohling
August Rohling was a German Catholic theologian, student of anti-Semitic texts, and polemical author....

, and others. In 1885 Strack became the editor of Nathanael. Zeitschrift für die Arbeit der Evangelischen Kirche an Israel, published at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

; and in 1883 he founded the Institutum Judaicum
Institutum Judaicum
The Institutum Judaicum was a special academic course for Protestant theologians who desired to prepare themselves for missionary work among the Jews.The first of its kind was founded at the University of Halle, by Professor Callenberg in 1724...

, which aims at the conversion of Jews to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

. In the beginning of his career the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n government sent Strack to St. Petersburg to examine the Bible manuscripts there; on this occasion he examined also the antiquities of the Firkovich
Abraham Firkovich
Abraham ben Samuel Firkovich was a famous leader of the Qarays . He was born in Lutsk, Volhynia, then lived in Lithuania, and finally settled in Çufut Qale, Crimea. Firkovich was a communal leader and hakham...

 collection, which he declared to be forgeries. This claim was found to be untrue: the Firkovich collection is closely related to Cairo Geniza
Cairo Geniza
The Cairo Geniza is a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of...

 material found by Solomon Schechter
Solomon Schechter
Solomon Schechter was a Moldavian-born Romanian and English rabbi, academic scholar, and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of the American Conservative Jewish...

.

Selected works

  • Prolegomena Critica in Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum (Leipzig, 1873);
  • Katalog der Hebräschen Bibelhandschriften der Kaiserlichen Oeffentlichen Bibliothek in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1875), in collaboration with A. Harkavy;
  • Prophetarum Posteriorum Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (ib. 1876);
  • A. Firkowitch und Seine Entdeckungen (ib. 1876);
  • editions of the Mishnah tractates Abot (Carlsruhe, 1882; 2d ed. Berlin, 1888), Yoma (ib. 1888), 'Abodah Zarah (ib. 1888), and Shabbat (ib. 1890);
  • Hebräische Grammatik (Carlsruhe, 1883; 3d ed. Munich, 1902);
  • Lehrbuch der Neuhebräischen Sprache und Litteratur (ib. 1884), in collaboration with Karl Siegfried;
  • Herr Adolf Stöcker (ib. 1885; 2d ed. 1886);
  • Einleitung in den Talmud (Leipzig, 1887; 2d ed. 1894), a revised reprint of his article on the subject in Herzog-Hauck's Real-Encyklopädie, to which he made a whole series of contributions on rabbinic subjects;
  • Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Nördlingen, 1888; 5th ed. Munich, 1898);
  • Der Blutaberglaube in der Menschheit, Blutmorde und Blutritus (ib. 1891; 5th ed. 1900), an investigation into the blood libel;
  • Die Juden. Dürfen Sie 'Verbrecher von Religionswegen' Genannt Werden? (Berlin, 1893);
  • Abriss des Biblischen Aramäisch (Leipzig, 1897).
  • Jüdische Geheimgesetze?. Mit 3 Anh.: Rohling, Ecker und kein Ende?. Artur Dinter u. Kunst, Wissenschaft, Vaterland. "Die Weisen von Zion" und ihre Gläubigen (Berlin 1920; ib. 3rd and 4th ed. 1921).
  • Introduction to the Talmud & Midrash (1931), Jewish Publication Society of America, based on the 5th Edition of Einleitung in den Talmud & Midrasch.
  • Kommentar zum Neuen Testament Aus Talmud und Midrasch, with Paul Billerbeck
    Paul Billerbeck
    Paul Billerbeck was a Lutheran minister and scholar of Judaism, best known for his Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash co-written with Hermann Strack. Billerbeck was born in Prussia to Jewish parents and educated in Greifswald and Leipzig...

    ; (4 volumes).


Since 1886 Strack was associated with Zoeckler in editing the Kurzgefasster Kommentar zu den Schriften des Alten und Neuen Testaments (Nördlingen and Munich). Strack was also a member of the Foreign Board of Consulting Editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...

.
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