HEINRICH

GRAETZ (1817–1891)  , the foremost Jewish historian of modern times, was born in Posen in 1817 and died at Munich 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 . It was a brilliant resuscitation of the past . Graetz's skill in piecing together detached fragments of information, his vast learning and extraordinary critical 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 has been translated into many languages; it appeared in English in five volumes in 1891–1895 . 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 of genius . Simultaneously with the publication of vol. iv . Graetz was appointed on the staff of the new Breslau Seminary, 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, Esther and other biblical books . His critical edition of the Psalms (1882–1883) was his chief 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, 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 in six volumes (Philadelphia, 1898) . (I .