Abrahams, Israel

ABRAHAMS, ISRAEL: English rabbinical scholar and author; b. at London Nov. 26, 1858. He was educated at Jews’ College and University College, London (M.A., 1881). After teaching at Jews’ College for several years, he was appointed senior tutor there in 1900, but in 1902 accepted a call to Cambridge as reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature. He has been a member of the Committee for Training Jewish Teachers, the Committee of the Anglo-Jewish Association, was the first president of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies, and has been successively honorary secretary and president of the Jewish Historical Society.

Abrahams has been one of the editors of the Jewish Quarterly Review since 1889, and contributes each week to the Jewish Chronicle. His works include Aspects of Judaism (London, 1895; in collaboration with Claude G. Montefiore); Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896); Chapters on Jewish Literature (1899); Maimonides (Philadelphia, 1903; in collaboration with D. Yellin); and Festival Thoughts (London, 1905-06).