Solomon Schechter was a Moldavian-born British-American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of American Conservative Judaism.
19 Facts About Solomon Schechter
2.
Solomon Schechter was born in Focsani, Moldavia to Rabbi Yitzchok Hakohen, a shochet and member of Chabad hasidim.
3.
Solomon Schechter was named after its founder, Shneur Zalman of Liadi.
4.
Solomon Schechter went to a yeshiva in Piatra Neamt at age 10 and at age thirteen studied with one of the major Talmudic scholars, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lemberg.
5.
Solomon Schechter was alerted to the existence of the Geniza's papers in May 1896 by two Scottish sisters, Agnes and Margaret Smith, who showed him some leaves from the Geniza that contained the Hebrew text of Sirach, which had for centuries only been known in Greek and Latin translation.
6.
Letters, written at Solomon Schechter's prompting, by Agnes Smith to The Athenaeum and The Academy quickly revealed the existence of another nine leaves of the same manuscript in the possession of Archibald Sayce at University of Oxford.
7.
Solomon Schechter quickly found support for another expedition to the Cairo Geniza, and arrived there in December 1896 with an introduction from the Chief Rabbi, Hermann Adler, to the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Aaron Raphael Ben Shim'on.
8.
Solomon Schechter carefully selected for the Cambridge University Library a trove three times the size of any other collection: this is part of the Taylor-Schechter Collection.
9.
The find was instrumental in Solomon Schechter resolving a dispute with David Margoliouth as to the likely Hebrew language origins of Sirach.
10.
Solomon Schechter was joint editor with Schechter of The Wisdom of Ben Sira, 1899.
11.
Solomon Schechter became a Professor of Hebrew at University College London in 1899 and remained until 1902 when he moved to the United States and was replaced by Israel Abrahams.
12.
In 1902, traditional Jews reacting against the progress of the American Reform Judaism movement, which was trying to establish an authoritative "synod" of American rabbis, recruited Solomon Schechter to become President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
13.
Solomon Schechter served as the second President of the JTSA, from 1902 to 1915, during which time he founded the United Synagogue of America, later renamed as the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
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Solomon Schechter died in 1915, and was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.
15.
Solomon Schechter emphasized the centrality of Jewish law in Jewish life in a speech in his inaugural address as President of the JTSA in 1902:.
16.
Solomon Schechter was the chairman of the committee that edited the Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Hebrew Bible.
17.
Solomon Schechter's name is synonymous with the findings of the Cairo Geniza.
18.
Solomon Schechter placed the JTSA on an institutional footing strong enough to endure for over a century.
19.
Solomon Schechter became identified as the foremost personality of Conservative Judaism and is regarded as its founder.