- Jacob Rader Marcus
Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995) was a scholar of
Jewish history and a Reform rabbi. Born inNew Haven ,Pennsylvania ,United States , into a traditional Jewish family, Marcus became interested in Reform Judaism at the age of 15. At that time, he travelled toHebrew Union College (HUC), inCincinnati ,Ohio , to begin his rabbinical training. After a two-year interim duringWorld War I , when he served in the American military, Marcus returned to graduate studies in Cincinnati. After receiving rabbinical ordination in 1920, Marcus was appointed to the faculy of HUC, where he began teaching biblical history. In 1922, Marcus travelled toBerlin to study Jewish history withIsmar Elbogen , who awarded Marcus aPh.D. in 1925. In that year, Marcus married Antoinette Brody inParis . After briefly studying atHebrew University inJerusalem in 1926, Marcus returned to Cincinnati, where he lectured at HUC consistently until 1995. In 1959, he was named the "Adolph S. Ochs Professor of American Jewish History". In 1965, he was appointed to HUC's "Milton and Hattie Kutz Distinguished Service Chair in American Jewish History". Marcus devoted most of his post-World War II historical career to American Jewish history and founded the [http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/index.html American Jewish Archives] in Cincinnati in 1947 on the campus of HUC. He is, perhaps, best known for his work on Medieval European Jewish history, "The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book: 315-1791", first published in 1938.
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