Isac Leo Seeligmann

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Isac Leo Seeligmann , Hebrew יצחק אריה זליגמן Jitzchak ʾArje Zeligman , (born January 10, 1907 in Amsterdam ; died 1982 in Jerusalem ) was a Dutch and Israeli classical philologist and biblical scholar.

Life and teaching

Isac Leo Seeligmann was the only son of Sigmund Seeligmann and Juliette, nee Veershym. The father, a representative of Jewish neo-orthodoxy , promoted the boy's upbringing. In early childhood he learned the Bible and Talmud and developed a very good memory. Isac Leo Seeligmann shaped the atmosphere in his parents' home, where scholars such as Christian David Ginsburg , Felix Perles and Solomon Schechter frequented. At the Rabbinical Seminary in Amsterdam he acquired the degree of moreh in 1931 and studied classical philology at the University of Amsterdam . For his doctoral project in the Maccabees , he was in exchange with David Cohen , a Dutch ancient historian and Zionist. In addition, Seeligmann learned Akkadian and traveled regularly to the University of Leiden . During this time he hesitated whether he should become a rabbi or pursue a university career.

The more he inclined to an academic activity, the more he was faced with the task of dealing with (predominantly Protestant) biblical criticism, despite the partly anti-Semitic positioning of its protagonists. Seeligmann particularly valued the work of Hermann Gunkel , but considered Julius Wellhausen to be the better Hebraist and text critic.

In January 1939 he married Margot Darmstädter, whose family came from Frankfurt am Main and had emigrated to the Netherlands in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power. The couple had two daughters Judith (* 1939) and Mirjam (* 1942).

In 1943 Leo and Margot Seeligmann were arrested with their small children and Sigmund Seeligmann's widow in their Amsterdam apartment and taken to the Westerbork transit camp , from where they were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto the following year . Their names were on the so-called Barneveld list of prominent Jews who were left alive by the Nazi authorities as hostages for a possible prisoner exchange. In Theresienstadt, Seeligmann was assigned the task of cataloging book collections from confiscated Jewish libraries, including books from his father's private library. He read a lot, especially an edition of the ancient Jewish translation of the Bible into Greek ( Septuagint ). As in Westerbork, Seeligmann taught in Theresienstadt and discussed with Leo Baeck, who was also imprisoned there . After the Red Army liberated Theresienstadt, the Seeligmann family returned to Amsterdam, where they arrived in July 1945.

After the end of the war, Isac Leo Seeligmann took on the role of curator of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana , which reopened on November 6, 1946. In 1947 he submitted his main work as a dissertation at the University of Leiden, a study on the Septuagint version of the book of Isaiah . In doing so, Seeligmann analyzed contemporary historical references that the ancient translator incorporated into his text in a quasi-updated manner. He turned down offers of a rabbinical position because since the liberation his goal was to be scientifically active at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , the center of Jewish studies. After the founding of the state, in January 1950, he immigrated to Israel and immediately received a teaching position at the Hebrew University, since 1956 a professorship. He taught here until his retirement in 1975.

His academic work in Jerusalem focused on the history of Israel at the time of the Second Temple. In the middle of the 20th century, a school dominated the Hebrew University which, under the influence of William Foxwell Albright , reckoned with a high historical reliability of the biblical information, even the books of the chronicle ("Jerusalem School"). Seeligmann, on the other hand, represented biblical studies with European characteristics.

Publications (selection)

literature

  • Rudolf Smend: Isaac Leo Seeligmann: Fascinated by the Septuagint . In: Studia Rosenthaliana 38/39 (2005/2006), pp. 100-106.
  • Alexander Rofé: Isac Leo Seeligmann - Text Criticism in Context . In: Alexander Rofé, Michael Segal, Shemaryahu Talmon , Zipora Talshir (eds.): Textus: Text-Criticism and Beyond - In Memory of Isac Leo Seeligmann . Volume 24, Jerusalem 2009, pp. 1-14. ISBN 978-965-7763-21-6 . ( PDF )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Smend: Isaac Leo Seeligmann: Fascinated by the Septuagint . In: Studia Rosenthaliana 38/39 (2005/2006), p. 1012.
  2. ^ A b Rudolf Smend: Isaac Leo Seeligmann: Fascinated by the Septuagint . In: Studia Rosenthaliana 38/39 (2005/2006), p. 102.
  3. ↑ Alexander Rofé: Isac Leo Seeligmann - Text Criticism in Context , Jerusalem 2009, p. 8f.
personal data
SURNAME Seeligmann, Isac Leo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zeligman, Jitzchak ʾArje (WP transcription Ivrit); יצחק אריה זליגמן (Hebrew)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli biblical scholar and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH 1982
Place of death Jerusalem