Israel Abrahams: Master Teacher of Liberal Judaism

Abstract

Solomon Schechter departed England in the spring of 1902 to become president of the reorganised Jewish Theological Seminary of America. His post as Reader in Rabbinic and Talmudic Literature at Cambridge University was taken up by 44-year-old Israel Abrahams who remained at the post until his demise at age sixty-seven.1 Israel Abrahams hailed from a distinguished pedigree. His father Barnett Abrahams served as a Principal of Jews' College but died from rheumatic fever before his thirtythird birthday. Israel's mother, born Jane Rodrigues Brandon, traced her family tree to fugitives from the Spanish Inquisition.2 Entering Jews' College, London, in 1872, Israel Abrahams remained connected to the institution for thirty-three years where he taught English and Mathematics (1881-1899), Homiletics (1894-1903), and acted as Senior Tutor (1899-1905). As a prolific popular writer, his articles appeared in Anglo-Jewry's oldest newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle (1885-1919), including a weekly column that ran for almost twenty-five years. From 1919 until his death he wrote serially for the organ of Liberal Judaism, the Jewish Guardian? As scholar, Abrahams was both a founder (1893) and editor, until his passing, of the Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England . Earlier, in 1888, he joined with his beloved friend and colleague, Claude Goldsmid Montefiore (1858-1938) to publish the nondenominational journal, The Jewish Quarterly Review.