History of the Jews, Vol. VI (Of 6) - Containing a Memoir of the Author by Dr
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History of the Jews, Vol. VI (of 6) - Containing a Memoir of the Author by Dr. Philip Bloch, a Chronological Table of Jewish History, an Index to the Whole Work By Graetz, Heinrich English A Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book This book is indexed by ISYS Web Indexing system to allow the reader find any word or number within the document. 6)*** generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/historyofjews06graeuoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (italics). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). Small-capital text is shown as all-capital. Transcriber-provided Hebrew transliterations are enclosed by curly braces next to the Hebrew text .({Hebrew: Beyt Shmuel Acharon} בית שמואל אחרון :example) Some devices might lack the necessary character sets, in which case question marks, squares, or other symbols will be displayed. In this case the reader should refer to the html version referred to above or to the original page images at Internet Archive. Other transcriber's notes will be found at the end of this eBook, following the Footnotes. HISTORY OF THE JEWS by HEINRICH GRAETZ VOL. VI CONTAINING A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR BY DR. PHILIP BLOCH A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF JEWISH HISTORY AN INDEX TO THE WHOLE WORK [Illustration] Philadelphia The Jewish Publication Society of America 5717-1956 Copyright, 1898, by The Jewish Publication Society of America All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher: except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Printed in the United States of America PREFACE TO THE INDEX VOLUME. Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book Page 1 With the Index Volume, the Jewish Publication Society of America brings to a close the American edition of the “History of the Jews” by Professor H. Graetz. A glance at the title-page and the table of contents will show, that the celebrated historian cannot be held directly responsible for anything this volume contains. The History proper, as abridged under the direction of the author and translated into English from the eleven volume German edition, is complete in five volumes. In compiling this additional volume, the Publication Committee was prompted by the desire to render the work readily available for pedagogical purposes. To be of value to the general reader as well as to the scholar, a work containing upwards of three thousand pages needs to be equipped with indexes, tables, and helps of various kinds. The importance of indexes can hardly be over-estimated. The English jurist and writer who considered them so essential that he “proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament to deprive an author who publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of copyright” was not too emphatic. In books of facts, such as histories, indexes are indispensable. This has been fully recognized in the Society’s edition of Graetz’s “History of the Jews.” Each of the five volumes, as it appeared, was furnished with an adequate index. Yet there are two reasons justifying and even requiring the compilation of a general index to the whole work. The first is the reader’s convenience. All who use books to any extent know the annoyance of taking volume after volume from the shelf to find the desired information only in the last. In fact, the separate indexes were compiled only because circumstances compelled the publication of the single volumes at rather long intervals. The other consideration is that Professor Graetz is the historiographer par excellence of the Jews. His work, at present the authority upon the subject of Jewish history, bids fair to hold its pre-eminent position for some time, perhaps decades. A comprehensive index to his work is, therefore, at the same time an index to the facts of Jewish history approximately as accepted by contemporary scholars--a sufficient reason for its existence. To make it a worthy guide to Jewish history in general, the index necessarily had to be more than a mere compilation of the five separate indexes. In the matter of the names of persons and places, accordingly, the general index excels the others in the fullness and completeness of the references. But its chief title to superiority over them lies in its character as an Index of Subjects, illustrated by such captions as Blood Accusation; Conversions, forced; Coins; Emancipation of the Jews; Bulls, Papal; Apostasy and Apostates; Messiah and Messianic; Bible under the headings Law, Old Testament, Pentateuch, Scriptures, Septuagint, Translations, and Vulgate; Education under the headings, Colleges, Rabbinical and Talmudical, Law, Schools, Talmud, and Talmud Torah. These summaries will be suggestive, it is hoped, to the teacher of Jewish history and to the student with sufficient devotion to the subject to pursue it topically and pragmatically as well as in its chronologic sequence. As an illustration of what use may be made of it, the compiler has prefixed to the index a guide to the study of Jewish history by means of the biographies of its great men, an apostolical succession, as it were. Under the class-names there given, the names of all persons of each class will be found grouped in the index. Again, if it is desirable to trace out a topic, as, for instance, the development of Hebrew grammar, or the cultivation of medicine among Jews, etc., the index is helpful by means of its lists of names of Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book Page 2 grammarians, physicians, astronomers, historians, poets, etc., under these and similar heads. To facilitate its use, the student is urged to read the directions preceding the index. Great difficulties attach to the systematic arrangement of the names of persons connected with ancient and mediæval history of all kinds. In Jewish history, even down to recent times, these difficulties are largely increased by the comparatively late introduction among Jews of family names in the accepted modern sense, and by their introduction among Spanish Jews earlier than among the others. The scheme adopted by Zedner, in his British Museum catalogue, has been followed as far as the peculiarities of our author and his subject, and its presentation in a modern language, permitted it. The arrangement is not ideal, but every effort has been made to minimize the difficulties. In this preface, precedence has been given to the index, because, in spite of the consensus of opinions among connoisseurs, the importance of indexes and their usefulness are in some quarters still held to stand in need of vindication. In the book, however, the first place is occupied by a contribution whose value will be disputed by none, namely, the Memoir of the author, the greatest historian of the Jews. The Committee believes, not only that the public has a taste for biographical studies, but that in this instance it will be pleased with the choice of biographer, Dr. Philipp Bloch, rabbi of Posen, a disciple of Graetz and for more than a quarter of a century his intimate friend. Although not quite seven years have elapsed since Graetz passed away, and many that were closely associated with him are still among the living, it was not easy to find the man qualified for the task of writing his biography. Graetz was not inclined to be communicative about his early life or his emotional experiences. He had met with disappointments that emphasized the reticence of his nature. The venerable wife of the deceased historian was kind enough to put all her husband’s literary remains at the disposal of the biographer, who herewith acknowledges his deep obligation to her for the help thus afforded his work. The greater part of material of this kind, especially in the form of letters, Graetz burnt before his last change of residence. But his interesting diary was spared. It was kept with more or less regularity from 1832 to 1854, though for the latter part of this period it is hardly more than a bald summary of events, and the disappearance of loose leaves curtails the information that might have been gathered from it. The biographer’s thanks are due also to the Board of Curators of the Fränkel Bequests for kindly putting at his service the documents in their archives bearing on Graetz’s connection with the Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary, thus enabling him to verify facts long in his possession. Dr. Bloch furthermore availed himself of Dr. B. Rippner’s interesting brochure, “Zum siebzigsten Geburtstage des Professors Dr. Heinrich Graetz,” and of Professor Dr. David Kaufmann’s eloquent eulogy of his teacher, “H. Graetz, der Historiograph des Judenthums.” The Committee believes, that in securing the co-operation of Dr. Bloch it has been the instrument of eliciting an important original contribution to Jewish biographical literature. The Chronological Table is another feature of the volume to which attention must be called. In the eighth volume of the German edition of the “History,” Professor Graetz introduced a similar table, reciting the succession of events from the Maccabæan struggle to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal. The present analysis includes the whole Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book Page 3 of Jewish history up to the year 1873 of this era. It assumes to be nothing more than a summary of the “History of the Jews” by Graetz. As no attempt has been made to indicate whether his conclusions are endorsed by the scholars of our day, it becomes a duty to refer to the vexed question of Biblical chronology.