Yitzhak Baer

Yitzhak Baer (Hebrew יצחק בער; born December 20 1888 in Halberstadt as Fritz Baer, † January 22, 1980 in Israel) was a Jewish historian and author.

Life

Fritz Baer was born in 1888 in a wealthy Jewish family. After leaving school, he studied in Halberstadt 1908-1914 philosophy, history and classical philology at the universities of Berlin, Strasbourg and Hall. In 1913 he was at the University of Freiburg PhD ( with Heinrich Finke ) with a thesis on the history of the Jews in Aragon. From 1919 he worked at the School of Jewish Studies in Berlin. On their behalf he spent 1925/26 in Spain, where he gathered archival material on the history of Spanish Jewry. In 1928, Baer taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1930 he was appointed full professor of Jewish and general history of the Middle Ages. Its source collection for Spanish Jewry was the basis for his two-volume history of the Jews in Christian Spain, considered the standard work.

Works

• Studies in the History of the Jews in the Kingdom of Aragon: during the 13th and 14th century. Berlin: E. Ebering, 1913
• The log book of Landjudenschaft of the Duchy of Cleves: First part: the history of Landjudenschaft of the Duchy of Cleves. Berlin: C. A. Schwetschke, 1922
• Studies on sources and composition of the Schebet Jude. Berlin: C. A. Schwetschke, 1923
• Galut. Berlin: Schocken, 1936
• The Jews in Christian Spain. Part one: records and calendar entries. 2 volumes, Berlin in 1929 and 1936 ( Reprint London 1970).
• History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 volumes ( 1945-1959 heb. closely. 1961-1966 ), Philadelphia 1992. ISBN 0-8276-0431-9