Description: Here presented is the Ultimate set of books that a library would desire for their Jewish History or General History section (These volumes do overlap world history too in a very unique and compelling way), that is because Seven volumes in total are included in this listing. The 6 Volume History Of the Jews By Heinrich Graetz in English, printed in 1967 & The Excellent 1 Volume Prolific Continuation
of Graetz's work, printed in 1953. That which fills in his history until 50 years after the authors death. This 7th volume is called 'A Century Of Jewish Life' written
by Ismar Elbogen. It is so named because the author begins his history one generation before Graetz's passing and spans, approximately 100 years. It is in the master historians style, scholarship, and profesionalism. The cover exterior and internal style and font were made to match the classic set, also written by one of the most eminent and respected Jewish historians.
Condition: Books are in very nice, near-unread condition as pictured. No writing in interior except each volume has a name scrawled on the title page. (Photo of sample title with area of name obscured is shown) Excellent binding and covers. 50
Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) was among the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective.
Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz in Xions (now Książ Wielkopolski), Grand Duchy of Posen, in Prussia (now in Poland), he attended Breslau University, but since Jews at that time were barred from receiving Ph.D.s there, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Jena. After 1845 he was principal of the Jewish Orthodox school of the Breslau community, and later taught history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). His magnum opus History of the Jews was quickly translated into other languages and ignited worldwide interest in Jewish history. In 1869 the University of Breslau granted him the title of Honorary Professor. In 1888 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.
Graetz received his first instruction at Zerkow, where his parents had relocated, and in 1831 was sent to Wollstein, where he attended the yeshivah up to 1836, acquiring secular knowledge by private study. The Neunzehn Briefe über Judenthum, ("Nineteen Letters on Judaism") by Samson Raphael Hirsch, which were published under the pseudonym of "Ben Uziel" at Altona in 1836, made a powerful impression on him; and he resolved to prepare himself for academic studies in order to champion the cause of Orthodox Judaism. His first intention was to go to Prague, he was attracted by its old yeshivah and the facilities afforded by the university. Being rejected by the immigration officers, he returned to Zerkov and wrote to Samson Raphael Hirsch, then rabbi of Oldenburg, telling him of his intentions. Hirsch offered him a home in his house. Graetz arrived there on May 8, 1837, and spent three years with his patron as a pupil, companion, and amanuensis. In 1840 he accepted a tutorship with a family at Ostrowo, and in October 1842 he entered the University of Breslau.
At that time the controversy between Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism was at its height, and Graetz, true to the principles which he had imbibed from Hirsch, began his literary career by writing contributions to the "Orient", edited by Julius Furst, in which he severely criticized the Reform party, as well as Geiger's text-book of the Mishnah ("Orient", 1844). These contributions and his championing of the Conservative cause during the time of the rabbinical conferences made him popular with the Orthodox party. This was especially the case when he agitated for a vote of confidence to be given to Zacharias Frankel after he had left the Frankfurt conference because of the stand which the majority had taken on the question of the Hebrew language. After Graetz had obtained his degree of Ph.D. from the University of Jena (his dissertation being "De Auctoritate et Vi Quam Gnosis in Judaismum Habuerit," 1845; published a year later under the title "Gnosticismus und Judenthum"), he was made principal of a religious school founded by the Conservatives in Breslau. In the same year he was invited to preach a trial sermon before the congregation of Gleiwitz, Silesia, but was not accepted.
He remained in Breslau until 1848, when, upon the advice of a friend, he went to Vienna, purposing to follow a journalistic career. On the way he stopped at Nikolsburg, where Hirsch was residing as Moravian chief rabbi. Hirsch, who then contemplated the establishment of a rabbinical seminary, employed Graetz temporarily as teacher at Nikolsburg, and afterward gave him a position as principal of the Jewish school in the neighboring city of Lundenburg (1850). In October 1850, Graetz married Marie Monasch, the daughter of the printer and publisher B. L. Monasch, of Krotoschin. It seems that Hirsch's departure from Nikolsburg had an influence on Graetz's position; for in 1852 the latter left Lundenburg and went to Berlin, where he delivered a course of lectures on Jewish history before rabbinical students. Meantime his advocacy of Frankel had brought him into close contact with the latter, for whose magazine he frequently wrote articles; and accordingly in 1854 he was appointed a member of the teaching staff of the seminary at Breslau, over which Frankel presided. In this position he remained up to his death, teaching history and Bible exegesis, with a preparatory course on the Talmud. In 1869 the government conferred upon him the title of professor, and thenceforward he lectured at Breslau University.
In 1872 Graetz went to Palestine in the company of his friend Gottschalck Levy of Berlin, for the purpose of studying the scenes of the earliest period of Jewish history, which he treated in volumes one and two of his history, published in 1874–76, in German; these volumes brought that great work to a close. While in Palestine, he gave first impetus to the foundation of an orphan asylum there. He also took a great interest in the progress of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and participated as a delegate in the convention assembled at Paris in 1878 in the interest of the Romanian Jews. Graetz's name was prominently mentioned in the anti-Semitic controversy, especially after Treitschke had published his "Ein Wort über Unser Judenthum" (1879–1880), in which the latter, referring to the eleventh volume of the history, accused Graetz of hatred of Christianity and of bias against the German people, quoting him as a proof that the Jews could never assimilate themselves to their surroundings.
Graetz is chiefly known as the Jewish historian, although he did considerable work in the field of exegesis also. His Geschichte der Juden superseded all former works of its kind, notably that of Jost, in its day a remarkable achievement; and it has been translated into many languages. The fourth volume, beginning with the period following the destruction of Jerusalem, was published first. It appeared in 1853; but the publication was not a financial success, and the publisher refused to continue it. However, the publication society Institut zur Förderung der Israelitischen Litteratur, founded by Ludwig Philippson, had just come into existence, and it undertook the publication of the subsequent volumes, beginning with the third, which covered the period from the death of Judas Maccabeus to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. This was published in 1856 and was followed by the fifth, after which the volumes appeared in regular succession up to the eleventh, which was published in 1870 and brought the history down to 1848, with which year the author closed, not wishing to include living persons. (The German volumes were much thinner then the English volumes in the set above, so the 11 volumes in German fit into 6 volumes in English)
In spite of this reserve he gravely offended the Liberal party, which inferred, from articles that Graetz contributed to the Monatsschrift, that he would show little sympathy for the Reform element, and therefore refused to publish the volume unless the manuscript was submitted for examination. This Graetz refused to do; and the volume therefore appeared without the support of the publication society. Volumes I and II were published, as stated above, after Graetz had returned from Palestine. These volumes, of which the second practically consisted of two, appeared in 1872–75, and completed the stupendous undertaking. For more popular purposes Graetz published later an abstract of his work under the title Volksthümliche Geschichte der Juden, in which he brought the history down to his own time.
The fourth volume of the History of the Jews received a detailed review by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in a series of essays in Vols. II-IV (1855-8) of his monthly journal Jeschurun. In these essays, a 203-page critique, Hirsch attempts to prove that Graetz made errors in his account of history e.g., According to Hirsch, Graetz omitted the second halves of quotations which, if quoted in their entirety, according to Hirsch, contradict his thesis. He further states that Graetz claims, on the basis of one or two quotations from certain Talmudic sages, that they "were wont to do" something - despite according to Hirsch's interpretation there are sources to the contrary - and goes on to develop these suppositions into theories affecting the entire Torah tradition. This irked Hirsch, understandably, taking into account his far-right ideology. Graetz, he says fabricates dates, rearranges generations, speaks of "most of these laws" when in fact his description applies, even by a charitable interpretation, to fewer than half, and in many other ways rewrites the Talmud to support his theses and facilitate the flow of his history. However, upon deeper analysis of many of Samson Raphael Hirsch's critiques (Including his tirade about Yohanan Ben Zakai), and the original source material, it is apparent that it is Hirsch who is the one who commits some very grave errors in scholarship. And it is obvious that many or all of his critiques were driven by his animosity and hate towards any ideology other then his extreme, narrow, Neo-Orthodoxy, which in many ways were self-fabricated.
This is the reason why Graetz's 6 volume 'History Of The Jews' has been a mainstay in any Jewish historian or lay person's library. Making its way into virtually every Jewish home. While Hirsch's books and writings on history and philosophy are very obscure and unpopular (Not his translations and commentaries on scripture and language though,
which contain some very original and creative thought and interpretation). As David N. Myers argues, Hirsch's criticisms of his one-time student's work were motivated by a complete difference of opinion on the value of historicism. (But really due to Hirsch's bias and commitment to a narrow and unhistorical ideology. And not being a historian who was familiar with the academic tools of historical analysis, or who didn't place value in them)
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