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(Jt) Ginzberg, Louis : THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA

New York: Clarence Nathan, Inc, 1918. Half Cloth. 8vo. 19 pages. "A scholar of Talmud, Midrash, and aggadah, whose comprehensive works in Jewish law and lore made him the doyen of Jewish scholars in the U. S. , Ginzberg was born in Kovno, Lithuania, and studied at the yeshivot of Kovno and Telz. After leaving Lithuania he studied history, philosophy, and oriental languages at the universities of Berlin, Strasbourg, where his teacher was T. Noeldeke, and Heidelberg, completing his studies in 1898. In 1899 Ginzberg immigrated to the United States to accept a position at Hebrew Union College, but when he arrived the invitation was withdrawn. He joined the staff of the Jewish Encyclopedia as editor of the rabbinic department in 1900. In 1903 he resigned to accept a position teaching Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he remained until his death. In teaching future rabbis and by his halakhic decisions and scholarly output, he became a principal architect of the Conservative movement. He was a founder (1919-20) and president for several years of the American Academy of Jewish Research. Ginzberg's work dealt mainly with the origins of aggadah, halakhah, and the literature of the geonim. While exploring the origins of aggadah, Ginzberg uncovered many lost legends of Jewish origins preserved only in early Christian texts. In his major work The Legends of the Jews (7 vols. , 1909-38) he combined hundreds of legends, maxims, and parables from the entire midrashic literature into a continuous narrative taken from the lives of the fathers of the people of Israel, its heroes, and its prophets. He analyzed the evolution of the legend from rabbinical texts, the external books and Hellenist literature, the early Christian texts, translations, exegeses, and the Kabbalah, correlating the material with the legends of other cultures and attempting to differentiate popular from scholarly creations. One note which Ginzberg sounded in all his writings was that it was not possible to understand Jewish history and culture without a thorough knowledge of halakhah" (Hertzberg, EJ) . OCLC lists no copies worldwide. Marbled edges and boards. Binding badly shaken. Bumping and fading to covers. Chipping to some pages. Title page detached but present. Otherwise in Good condition. Quite scarce in any condition. (AMRN-13-22).

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