 In
the preface to this work, Jastrow sharply criticized those linguistic
and etymological scholars who claimed that obscure terms in Talmudic
literature are primarily derived from Greek. Jastrow held that Greek
influence on Talmudic Aramaic was minimal, and that most obscure terms
could be much more simply be traced to Hebrew origins. Jastrow was
also responsible for most Talmud-related articles in the Jewish
Encyclopedia.
He was the father of Joseph Jastrow and Morris Jastrow, Jr.
Biography
American rabbi and scholar Marcus Jastrow was the fifth child of
Abraham Jastrow and Yetta (Henrietta) Rolle. Until 1840 he was
privately educated. In 1844 he entered the third-year class of the
Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium at Posen, graduating in 1852. From there
he went to Halle, where he was graduated in 1855, receiving the degree
of doctor of philosophy. In the meantime he continued his Jewish
studies and in 1853, at the age of 24, he received his rabbinical
ordination from the Orthodox Rabbi Moses Feilchenfeld in Rogasen and
later, in 1857, from the Orthodox Rabbi Wolf Landau in Dresden.
Jastrow taught briefly at Orthodox Jewish schools in Berlin, first at
a school by Dr. David Rosen then at Michael Sachs' school.
Joins in Polish Revolution
In 1858 Jastrow moved again as rabbi to the leading Orthodox
congregation in Warsaw, and threw himself into the study of the Polish
language and of Polish conditions. By February 27, 1861, national
feeling had risen so high in Poland that the government called out the
military; five victims fell in the Krakowskie Przedmieście, Warsaw,
and their burial and the memorial service were turned into patriotic
demonstrations, in which, for the first time, "the Old Testament
Brethren" of the Poles participated as a community. Though it was
Sabbath, three rabbis, including Jastrow, joined the funeral cortège;
at the memorial service in his synagogue, also on a Sabbath, Jastrow
preached his first Polish sermon, which aroused such great enthusiasm
that on Sunday his auditors reassembled and took it down at his
dictation. Circumventing the censor, they distributed ten thousand
manuscript copies within a week.
Although it was controversial at the time, delivering a sermon in
Polish does not violate any Orthodox Jewish restriction. (Neither does
following a funeral procession on foot on the Sabbath.) Today most
Orthodox rabbis give lectures in their local vernacular.
On various pretexts the three rabbis were arrested (November 10, 1861)
and incarcerated in the citadel of Warsaw. For twenty-three days
Jastrow was kept in solitary confinement; for seventy-two days he
shared the cell of Rabbi Meisels. His release came on February 12,
1862, when, being a Prussian subject, he was sent across the frontier.
During his imprisonment he had been required to answer in writing
three questions concerning the relation of the Jews to the Polish
Christians in their opposition to the government (see Hebrew Leader,
July 15, 22, 1870).
Returns to Warsaw
Broken in health, Jastrow, with his family, spent the spring and
summer of 1862 in Breslau, Berlin, and Dresden; in the autumn he
accepted a call from the Orthodox congregation in Mannheim. A few
weeks later, Nov., 1862, the order for his expulsion was revoked, and
gave occasion for a controversy between the congregation at Warsaw
(which had continued his salary until he went to Mannheim) and that of
Mannheim; at Jastrow's request the latter released him. A few months
after his return to Warsaw (Jan., 1863) the revolution broke out.
During its progress, and while Jastrow was traveling, his Prussian
passport was canceled, and he was not permitted to return to Warsaw.
The literary results of his Polish period are: Die Lage der Juden in
Polen (anonymous; Hamburg, 1859); Kazania Polskie, a volume of Polish
sermons (Posen, 1863); Die Vorläufer des Polnischen Aufstandes
(anonymous; Hamburg, 1864). He probably had a considerable share in
the production of Beleuchtung eines Ministeriellen Gutachtens
(Hamburg, 1859 [?]). In July, 1864, Jastrow accepted a call to Worms
as Orthodox district rabbi, and while there he produced Vier
Jahrhunderte aus der Gesch. der Juden von der Zerstörung des Ersten
Tempels bis zur Makkabäischen Tempelweihe (Heidelberg, 1865).
Aids Organization of American Jews
In the autumn of 1866 he went to Philadelphia as rabbi of the
Ashkenazic, Congregation Rodeph Shalom, with which he was connected
until his death, remaining in active service until 1892 and
identifying himself with the interests of the Jewish community. The
problem under discussion at the time was organization, urged in the
Eastern States by the Orthodox Isaac Leeser, and in the Western by the
Reform Isaac M. Wise. It dealt with higher education, representation,
and the regulation of liturgical changes, and Jastrow's personality
became a factor in its solution. When, through the exertions of Leeser,
the Maimonides College, the first rabbinical college in the U.S., was
opened at Philadelphia, Oct., 1867, Jastrow occupied the chair of
religious philosophy and Jewish history, and later also of Biblical
exegesis; he was identified with the college until it closed its doors
four years later. He supported the plan of organizing the Board of
Delegates of Civil and Religious Rights, and, under its auspices, the
American Jewish Publication Society (1873). His main activity,
however, from 1867 to 1871, was directed toward combating the
tendencies expressed in the resolutions of the rabbinical conferences
of 1869 and 1871. His opposition to them found expression in a series
of polemical articles published in The Hebrew Leader and The Jewish
Times.
To the same period belongs his collaboration with the leading Orthodox
rabbi in Boston, Benjamin Szold, in the revision of the latter's
prayer-book ('Abodat Yisrael) and home prayer-book (Hegyon Leb), and
his translation of the same prayer-books into English. (The
prayer-book was later more thoroughly revised after his death.) In his
own congregation his influence effected consolidation and growth; in
the Jewish community he participated in the formation and
reorganization of societies.
In 1876 Jastrow fell severely ill, and for some years his public
activities were limited by his poor health, which necessitated a
sojourn in the south of Europe. During this period of withdrawal he
fully matured the plans for his great work, A Dictionary of the
Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic
Literature (London and New York, 1886–1903). When the dictionary was
approaching completion in manuscript (1895), the Jewish Publication
Society of America was about to begin work on its projected new
translation of the Bible into English, and to Jastrow was entrusted
the chief-editorship. At the time of his death the translation of more
than half the books of the Bible had been revised by him. In addition
to these two great undertakings, he was a member of the Publication
Committee of the Jewish Publication Society from the time of its
establishment, and was connected with the Jewish Encyclopedia as
editor of the department of the Talmud; he took a prominent part in
the proceedings of the Jewish Ministers' Association, held a seat in
the central board of the Alliance Israélite Universelle at Paris, was
on the committee of the Meḳiẓe Nirdamim, was one of the
vice-presidents of the American Federation of Zionists, and was active
in relieving the needs, material and intellectual, of the Russian
immigrants.
Jastrow, a progressive rabbi, initially allowed his congregation to
join the Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations. At the time
the schism between Reform and Modern/Progressive Judaism was not yet
distinct. After the Reform organized "Pittsburgh conference" in 1885,
Jastrow, along with many other rabbis of the time, withdrew his
congregation's membership.
In 1886 together with Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes (founder of the
Orthodox Union) he helped Rabbi Sabato Morais establish the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America. It was only in 1913, ten years after
Jastrow's passing, that the next generation of management altered the
Orthodox principles of the school, and from them emerged Conservative
Judaism.
He was removed by his congregation in September 1892 in favor of the
Reform ordained Dr. Henry Berkowitz. Dr. Jastrow attributed this
decision to the growing popularity of liberal reforms and the
congregation's desire to compete for membership with the more liberal
synagogues. In his farewell speech he chastised his congregation
insisting that "he who does not feel himself in unison with the tenets
of Israel's religion as they have been transmitted from generation to
generation, [is] not justified in occupying a Jewish pulpit
established for the proclamation of Jewish doctrines." Several efforts
were made by him to prevent the introduction of reforms, including
articles in the public press. In 1894, the Board felt the necessity to
write him to ask him to refrain from publishing articles that might
create strife in the congregation. He served as rabbi emeritus of the
congregation until his passing in 1903, on the Jewish festival of
Shemini Atzereth.
In 1900 the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the
doctorate of literature. He died three years later in Germantown,
Philadelphia.
Besides the journals previously mentioned, articles of his appear in
the Revue des Études Juives; Frankel's Monatsschrift; Berliner's
Magazin für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums; Sippurim; Journal of
Biblical Literature; Hebraica; Young Israel; Libanon; "Jewish Record";
Jewish Messenger; American Hebrew; Jewish Exponent; etc. |