 Jastrow
was born in Posen, Poland. After receiving rabbinical
ordination, Ph.D., and Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt),
he became the rabbi of Reform Temple Rodeph Shalom
(while he was personally more theologically aligned
with Conservative Judaism) in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania in 1866, at the age of thirty-seven. In
1886, he began publishing his magnum opus, A
Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud
Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature, in pamphlet form.
It was finally completed and published in two-volume
form in 1903, and has since become a popular resource
for students of Talmud. In the preface to this work,
Jastrow sharply criticized those linguistic and
etymological scholars who claimed that obscure terms
in Talmudic literature are primarily derived from
Greek. Jastrow held that Greek influence on Talmudic
Aramaic was minimal, and that most obscure terms could
be much more simply be traced to Hebrew origins.
Jastrow was also responsible for most Talmud-related
articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
He was the father of Joseph Jastrow and Morris
Jastrow, Jr.
Detailed Biography
American rabbi and scholar; born June 5, 1829, at
Rogasen, Prussian Poland; died October 13, 1903, at
Germantown, Pennsylvania; fifth child of Abraham
Jastrow and Yetta (Henrietta) Rolle. Until 1840 he was
privately educated. In 1844 he entered the third-year
class of the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium at Posen,
graduating in 1852. From there he went to Berlin
University, and continued his Talmudic studies under
the rabbis of Berlin. The strongest influence exerted
upon him during his Berlin student days was that of
Michael Sachs.
In 1855 he took the Ph.D. degree at the University of
Halle, his thesis being "De Abraham ben Meïr Aben Esræ
Principiis Philosophiæ." In 1857 he received the
rabbinical authorization from Rabbi Feilchenfeld of
Rogasen and from Dr. Wolf Landau of Dresden. He taught
in the religious school of the Berlin congregation, at
that time conducted by Dr. David Rosin.
Joins in Polish Revolution
In 1858 Jastrow removed as rabbi to Warsaw, and threw
himself into the study of the Polish language and of
Polish conditions. By February 27, 1861, national
feeling had risen so high in Poland that the
government called out the military; five victims fell
in the Krakauer Vorstadt, Warsaw, and their burial and
the memorial service were turned into patriotic
demonstrations, in which, for the first time, "the Old
Testament Brethren" of the Poles participated as a
community. Though it was Sabbath, three rabbis,
including Jastrow, joined the funeral cortège; at the
memorial service in his synagogue, also on a Sabbath,
Jastrow preached his first Polish sermon, which
aroused such great enthusiasm that on Sunday his
auditors reassembled and took it down at his
dictation. Circumventing the censor, they distributed
ten thousand manuscript copies within a week.
On various pretexts the three rabbis were arrested
(November 10, 1861) and incarcerated in the citadel of
Warsaw. For twenty-three days Jastrow was kept in
solitary confinement; for seventy-two days he shared
the cell of Rabbi Meisels. His release came on
February 12, 1862, when, being a Prussian subject, he
was sent across the frontier. During his imprisonment
he had been required to answer in writing three
questions concerning the relation of the Jews to the
Polish Christians in their opposition to the
government (see Hebrew Leader, July 15, 22, 1870).
Returns to Warsaw
Broken in health, Jastrow, with his family, spent the
spring and summer of 1862 in Breslau, Berlin, and
Dresden; in the autumn he accepted a call from
Mannheim. A few weeks later, Nov., 1862, the order for
his expulsion was revoked, and gave occasion for a
controversy between the congregation at Warsaw (which
had continued his salary until he went to Mannheim)
and that of Mannheim; at Jastrow's request the latter
released him. A few months after his return to Warsaw
(Jan., 1863) the revolution broke out. During its
progress, and while Jastrow was traveling, his
Prussian passport was canceled, and he was not
permitted to return to Warsaw.
The literary results of his Polish period are: Die
Lage der Juden in Polen (anonymous; Hamburg, 1859);
Kazania Polskie, a volume of Polish sermons (Posen,
1863); Die Vorläufer des Polnischen Aufstandes
(anonymous; Hamburg, 1864). He probably had a
considerable share in the production of Beleuchtung
eines Ministeriellen Gutachtens (Hamburg, 1859 [?]).
In July, 1864, Jastrow accepted a call to Worms as
district rabbi, and while there he produced Vier
Jahrhunderte aus der Gesch. der Juden von der
Zerstörung des Ersten Tempels bis zur Makkabäischen
Tempelweihe (Heidelberg, 1865).
Aids Organization of American Jews
In the autumn of 1866 he went to Philadelphia as rabbi
of the German-Hebrew Congregation Rodeph Shalom, with
which he was connected until his death, remaining in
active service until 1892 and identifying himself with
the interests of the Jewish community. The problem
under discussion at the time was organization, urged
in the Eastern States by Isaac Leeser, and in the
Western by Isaac M. Wise. It dealt with higher
education, representation, and the regulation of
liturgical changes, and Jastrow's personality became a
factor in its solution. When, through the exertions of
Leeser, the Maimonides College was opened at
Philadelphia, Oct., 1867, Jastrow occupied the chair
of religious philosophy and Jewish history, and later
also of Biblical exegesis; he was identified with the
college until it closed its doors. He supported the
plan of organizing the Board of Delegates of Civil and
Religious Rights, and, under its auspices, the
American Jewish Publication Society (1873). His main
activity, however, from 1867 to 1871, was directed
toward combating the tendencies expressed in the
resolutions of the rabbinical conferences of 1869 and
1871. His opposition to them found expression in a
series of polemical articles published in The Hebrew
Leader and The Jewish Times.
To the same period belongs his collaboration with
Benjamin Szold in the revision of the latter's
prayer-book ( 'Abodat Yisrael) and home prayer-book (Hegyon
Leb), and his translation of the same prayer-books
into English. In his own congregation his influence
effected consolidation and growth; in the Jewish
community he participated in the formation and
reorganization of societies.
In 1876 Jastrow fell severely ill, and for some years
his public activities were limited by his poor health,
which necessitated a sojourn in the south of Europe.
During this period of withdrawal he fully matured the
plans for his great work, A Dictionary of the
Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the
Midrashic Literature (London and New York, 1886-1903).
When the dictionary was approaching completion in
manuscript (1895), the Jewish Publication Society of
America was about to begin work on its projected new
translation of the Bible into English, and to Jastrow
was entrusted the chief-editorship. At the time of his
death the translation of more than half the books of
the Bible had been revised by him. In addition to
these two great undertakings, he was a member of the
Publication Committee of the Jewish Publication
Society from the time of its establishment, and was
connected with the Jewish Encyclopedia as editor of
the department of the Talmud; he took a prominent part
in the proceedings of the Jewish Ministers'
Association, held a seat in the central board of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle at Paris, was on the
committee of the Mekize Nirdamim, was one of the
vice-presidents of the American Federation of
Zionists, and was active in relieving the needs,
material and intellectual, of the Russian immigrants.
In 1900 the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon
him the doctorate of literature.
Besides the journals previously mentioned, articles of
his appear in the Revue des Etudes Juives; Frankel's
Monatsschrift; Berliner's Magazin für die Wissenschaft
des Judenthums; Sippurim; Journal of Biblical
Literature; Hebraica; Young Israel; Libanon; "Jewish
Record"; Jewish Messenger; American Hebrew; Jewish
Exponent; etc. |
