Cecil Roth

Cecil Roth (born March 5, 1899 in London , † June 21, 1970 in Jerusalem ) was a British historian and art connoisseur. He received his doctorate in Oxford in 1924 and was Professor of the Science of Judaism at Oxford University from 1939 to 1964 . From 1965 until his death, he was the chief editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica .

Trained as a general historian with a focus on Italy, Roth began to concentrate on Jewish history, first as a journalist and lecturer, and later as a professor at Oxford University. His work is believed to include more than 600 books and essays translated into many languages, including major non-fiction books on the history of the Jews in England, the history of the Marranos , the Jews in the Renaissance, the history of Jewish art, and a two-volume biographical work about Dona Gracia Nasi and Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos .

After his retirement in Oxford, he moved to Jerusalem over and was a visiting professor at Columbia University , at Queens College of the City University of New York , the star College for Women of Yeshiva University (all New York City) and at the Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel). Cecil Roth's grave is in the Sanhedria Cemetery in Jerusalem.

His estate, which includes around 350 manuscripts, over 800 books from the 16th century to 1850 and a collection of more recent standard works on Jews in Europe and North America, is kept at the University of Leeds .

Publications (selection)

• The Jews of Malta , London 1931
• A History of the Marranos , 3 volumes, Philadelphia 1932 (4th edition: New York 1974)
• A short History of the Jewish people , Macmillan, London 1936 (German as: History of the Jews from the beginnings to the new state of Israel , Niggli, Teufen 1954, other German-language editions 1959 and 1964)
• The Spanish Inquisition , London 1937 (further editions: Norton, New York 1964, most recently 2004)
• History of the Jews in England , 1941
• The House of Nasi , 2 volumes:
  • Vol. 1: The House of Nasi. Dona Gracia , New York 1947 (new editions 1969 and 1992)
  • Vol. 2: The House of Nasi. The Duke of Naxos , New York 1948
• The Jews in the Renaissance. Philadelphia 1959.
• The share of the Jews in the political history of the West . Lower Saxony State Center for Political Education, Hanover 1965
• Jewish Art. An Illustrated History , Tel Aviv 1961, 2nd edition (revised by Bezalel Narkiss) London 1971 (German as Die Kunst der Juden , 2 volumes, Ner-Tamid-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1963–1964)
• Max Wurmbrand, in collaboration with Cecil Roth: The people of the Jews. 4000 years of struggle for survival. A universal story , Melzer, Dreieich 1980 (new editions 1989, 1999)

Editing:

• Encyclopaedia Judaica . Keter, Jerusalem / Macmillan, New York 1971–1972
• with Joseph F. Roth and Israel Finestein: Opportunities That Pass. An Historical Miscellany , Vallentine Mitchell, London 2005

Web links

• Literature by and about Cecil Roth in the catalog of the German National Library
• Cecil Roth , at Oxford Chabad Society

source

• John F. Oppenheimer (Red.) And a .: Lexicon of Judaism. 2nd Edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh u. a. 1971, ISBN 3-570-05964-2 , col. 676.