Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 12, 2016

A 19th-Century Medievalist Poised between the German Academy and the World of Jewish Tradition

Philipp Jaffé.

The 19th century saw no small number of Jews leave homes steeped in Jewish tradition to adopt German culture and to become distinguished scholars, writers, or businessmen. Philipp Jaffé (1819-1870) was highly unusual in that he remained connected to the milieu from which he came. A groundbreaking historian of the Middle Ages whose works are still consulted by specialists today, Jaffé was born in a small town in German-ruled Poland but spent most of his life at the University of Berlin, despite being unable to obtain a full professorship because of his religion. Daniel R. Schwartz, who has recently prepared a volume of Jaffé’s correspondence, writes:

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