Solomon Schechter
Solomon Schechter (Hebrew: שניאור זלמן שכטר, also: Solomon Schechter, born December 7, 1847 in Focsani, † November 20, 1915 in New York) was Romanian rabbi, scholar and Jewish educator, father of Conservative Judaism ( Conservative Jewish movement), founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and an early advocate of Zionism.
Life and work
Born in Focsani ( German: Focsani ) as one of six children in a Chassidic Chabad family in Romania, he attended yeshivas in Eastern Europe. His early education and training he received from his father, who was the only one shochet ( butcher ) in the city ( from where the name derives: Schechter = Shochet in Hebrew and Yiddish ).
Solomon Schechter was a highly gifted, learned at the age of three years to read Hebrew and had five extensive knowledge of the Chumash ( Torah ). With ten years he went to a yeshiva in Piatra, with thirteen he met together with one of the greatest Talmudic authorities, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lemberg. In Vienna he studied alongside the Jewish subjects in the Bet Midrash ( here appointment as Rabbi ) and philosophy at the University, in 1879 he went to the Berlin Academy of the Science of Judaism, but also studied at the University of Berlin.
A few years later he was invited by Claude Montefiore to London to teach rabbinic subjects there. In 1887, he married Mathilde Roth, whom he had met in the British Museum, where he was, among other things his hours. In the same year he published Avot de - Rabbi Nathan. 1890, after the death of Solomon Marcus Schiller- Szinessy, he taught at the University of Cambridge, his great academic fame goes back to his discovery, his efforts and the six -year-long publication of the documents that you are in the Cairo Genizah ( Genisa to Fostat ) had found ( collection of more than 100,000 rare Hebrew manuscripts and medieval Jewish texts). The discovery revolutionized the knowledge and study of medieval Jewry. Without Schechter's persistent efforts to these texts, many important documents would probably be lost for ever.
1899 Schechter was Hebrew professor at the University of London. 1902 to 1915 was president of the Schechter JTS - Jewish Theological Seminary in America, the home of Conservative Judaism. During this time he founded the United Synagogue of America, which later became the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which belong to more than 800 communities in America alone. He was also a big supporter of Zionism and made major contributions.
Solomon Schechter died in 1915 in New York at the age of 68 years. Thanks to his work, the JTS has established, and the day- school system of Conservative Judaism experienced significant growth. A large number of conservative Jewish Day Schools in America and Canada is named in his honor. From Schechter come along with many other writings and editions of Midrash ha - Gadol to Genesis, the newly found Hebrew Sirach and the Damascus Document.