Emanuel Deutsch of "The Talmud"

Emanuel Deutsch of The Talmud Fame* BETH-ZION LASK ABRAHAMS It is given to few to change ingrained beliefs and His uncle grounded him well in Jewish by so doing reverse attitudes to what has been studies. His influence shaped Emanuel's future vilified and traduced for hundreds of years. It is so that even when he attended the local gym? con? of few men in the Anglo-Jewish community nasium, and later the Berlin University, he that it can be said that they altered by their tinued his Talmud studies. writing the position of Judaism in the English From the age of 16 he supported himself by world of thought, so that what was before an giving lessons and writing occasional articles in embarrassment to be explained away apolo? the press, in the meantime employing his spare a getically became proud admission. And itwas time in studying languages and the Greek and are a rare achievement to influence by intellectual Roman classics. Few other particulars contact and learning a great writer, and so available of the years between, but it is clear was implant in her the idea of the resurrection of that he known in Berlin Jewish circles, for Jewish Statehood twenty years before Herzlian when early in 1855 the British Museum's Ber? Zionism. Emanuel Deutsch, the subject of my lin agents, Asher and Co., were asked to recom? paper, achieved all these. mend an assistant, someone who knew Hebrew, for their library department, Emanuel Deutsch was the His own letter of SEVERE EDUCATION person suggested. application, still to be seen in the Museum's Emanuel Deutsch (his full name was archives, was very carefully written in German, Emanuel Oscar Menachem Deutsch) was born and was accompanied by a letter signed by in Silesia on 28 October 1829 and came of Albert Cohn, the Berlin bookdealer, intro? strictly Orthodox parentage. His father was ducing him as 'a young man of 23 (and a Jew) . one of four brothers, three of whom were endowed with natural cleverness He Rabbis, all noted for their opposition to the understands Latin, Greek, and Hebrew per? . Reform movement then agitating German fectly English and French, he understands . Jewry. At the age of eight, EmanuePs educa? both languages though he does not speak ... tion was entrusted to the most brilliant of the English fluently he will soon become a brothers, Rabbi David Deutsch,1 of Mislovitz, master of it'. Cohn goes on reassuringly, 'His author of various notable Rabbinical works. moral conduct has hitherto been faultless and was The young lad's education of the severe, his character thoroughly respectable'. exacting kind then usual in Eastern Europe, So in 1855 Emanuel Deutsch came to Lon? being wholly devoted to Talmudic study, with don to take up his appointment in a minor little time for play. 'Before I knew how to read capacity at the British Museum. and write the language of the land wherein I was he wrote afterwards in an born', long EXPERT LINGUIST autobiographical fragment,2 'my lips were taught to stammer the Aleph-Beth, and to re? Little is known of his early years in London, ... cite my prayers in the tongue of David It though from accounts written by various friends was deemed well to steep my soul for a time after his death, one gathers a picture of widen? absolutely in the ocean called the Talmud'. ing social contacts in literary and art circles. At * was an Paper delivered before the Jewish Historical the British Museum his position that of Society of England, 7 January 1970. all-round assistant in the of 1 helping cataloguing Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, p. 546. was 2 books, in which his knowledge of languages Introductory Memoir, p. viii, Literary Remains of put to use, as well as in the archaeo? Emanuel Deutsch, ed. Lady Strangford (John practical In his Murray, London, 1874). logical and antiquity departments. spare E 53 Jewish Historical Society of England is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Transactions & Miscellanies Jewish Historical Society of England ® www.jstor.org 54 Beth-?ion Lask Abrahams or con? time he studied ancient languages, such as interest in Jews things Jewish. On the Chaldaic, Aramaic, Sanskrit, and Amharic, not trary, in an early letter, she had written, 1848: to mention Phoenician. His name began to be 'My gentile nature kicks most resolutely against noticed when certain reviews on the subjects in any assumption of superiority in the Jews, and which he was soon a recognised expert began is almost ready to echo Voltaire's vituperation. to appear in the learned journals which I bow to the supremacy of Hebrew poetry, but abounded in the mid-Victorian era. much of their early mythology, and almost all Deutsch also studied Arabic and Islamic sub? their history, is utterly revolting. Their stock a a jects; and in 1865 two reviews, one on 'Early has produced Moses and Jesus; but Moses on was Arabic Poetry' and the other 'Egypt Ancient impregnated with Egyptian philosophy, us and Modern', appeared in the Saturday Review. and Jesus is venerated and adored by only His work also became known in the small circle for that wherein He transcended or resisted . of Biblical scholars. Many of his early contribu? Judaism Everything specifically Jewish is of a tions appeared anonymously, but it is known low grade'. that more than 190 essays and articles from his Emanuel Deutsch was to work the remark? pen were published in Smith's Dictionary of the able change in her attitude which resulted in Bible, as well as in Chambers''s Encyclopaedia and her novel Daniel Deronda and her essay, 'The an Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. Modern Hep! Hep! Hep!', appreciation and understanding of Jewish history remarkable in a The was Deutsch THE SYDENHAM CIRCLE non-Jew. friendship close, being a frequent visitor, 'the brightest German About this time Deutsch lived in Sydenham, they ever saw'. After reading his article in the south London, one of a group described as the Pall Mall Gazette* in which he deplored the on Sydenham Circle in the biography of Sir general ignorance prevailing Islam, George no one George Grove,3 a founder and Secretary of the Eliot wrote to him, 'Of course, else but as as treasure Palestine Exploration Fund, well editor of you could write it and unless with the a the Dictionary of Music and Musicians and of of knowledge within you, you do great deal more same Macmillan's Magazine. Many of the members of of the sort, you will deserve the men to some? the Sydenham Circle later became eminent, anathemas of come, who will lack among them being Arthur Sullivan, Holman thing you might have given them. Especially, Hunt, Edmund Yates, the Lehmanns, Mos pray, return often to that note of reproach for con? cheles, Shirley Brookes, editor of Punch, and unashamed ignorance, and insist that George Du Maurier. scientious efforts to know is part of religion. See me The most important of Deutsch's friendships how I take it on to tell you your duty!.. .'5 on of this period was with the Leweses?George In August of the same year, while holiday Henry Lewes and Mary Ann Evans, best in Germany, George Eliot directs Deutsch as known as George Eliot the novelist, whom he where to send what she refers to his 'precious, was met through the Lehmanns. This was for George packet'?the proofs of his article which to Eliot at least a momentous friendship, for itwas be published in October, evidence that he to Emanuel Deutsch that she was indebted for valued her opinion, for he asked for her criti? the Jewish content of Daniel Deronda, the novel cism, writing in a light vein, 'this young mani? in which, with a seer's vision, she writes of the festo of the Deutsch party (consisting at present restoration of Jews to the Land of Israel two of myself) that desires to explain the historic . one decades before the advent of Theodor Herzl possibility [and] to bridge over of the and political Zionism. ghastliest gulfs in History, to restore to Human? Deutsch is first mentioned in the list of the ity one of its finest and oldest vantage grounds, famous afternoon at the Sunday gatherings 4 7 Aug. 1867, pp. 512-13. Lewes home in July 1866. Up to this time 5 27 Aug. 1876. The George Eliot letters are in Eliot had not evinced George any sympathetic Yale University (collected letters, 6 vols. Ed., Prof. 3 D.N.B. (1820-1900). Haight). Emanuel Deutsch of The Talmud Fame 55 and to shame shrieking fanaticism and ig? him: 'He was the oriental type of Jew: eyes norance out of its existence by a few simple and hair of the darkest, with flexible, ever facts and adages'. varying expressive mouth of the Israelite; a face the reverse of handsome but one that an GEORGE ELIOT'S HEBREW lighted up under the glow of enthusiastic nature . There was a certain loneliness of The friendship was based on mutual interest heart about him that around and in proof of this Emanuel Deutsch under? frequently hangs the took to give George Eliot lessons inHebrew one transplanted Jew'.9 A different is evening a week. picture presented by James Finn, who, it will be remembered, was Her About this time George du Maurier, the Britannic Consul at Jerusalem from Punch artist and later author of the ever-popular Majesty's 1846 to 1863. in retirement inHammer? Trilby and other novels, went with Deutsch for Living smith, he writes in his 16 October a holiday to Paris.

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