Emanuel Oscar Menahem Deutsch (1829 – 12 May 1873) was a German

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

scholar of Semitic studies, the Talmud and Middle Eastern studies.

Biography

Deutsch was born in Neisse,

Prussian Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a provinces of Prussia, province of Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part ...

(now Nysa, Poland). His education was begun by an uncle, to whose inspiration he owed his interest in Oriental languages and literature. On reaching his sixteenth year, he began his studies at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, paying special attention to

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. He also mastered the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

and studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. In 1855 Deutsch was appointed assistant in the library of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. He worked intensely on the Talmud and contributed no less than 190 papers to Chambers' ''Encyclopaedia'', as well as essays on the Targum and the Samaritan Pentateuch for Smith's ''Dictionary of the Bible'', essays for John Kitto's Biblical dictionary, and articles in periodicals. The monument of his official work in the British Museum is to be found in the ''Phoenician Inscriptions'', edited by William Sandys Wright Vaux, to whom Deutsch rendered assistance. In October 1867 his article on The Talmud, published in the '' Quarterly Review'', made him known, creating a great interest in the Talmud in Britain, including admirers such as George Eliot. The article was translated into French, German, Russian, Swedish, Dutch and Danish, and reprinted by the American Jewish Publication Society, Special Series No. 3 (Philadelphia, 1897). Deutsch was an important influence'Emanuel Deutsch's Literary Remains: A New Source for George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda"'
Mary Kay Temple, South Atlantic Review, Vol. 54, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 59-73 on George Eliot's Jewish characters and their ideas in her last novel Daniel Deronda. From 1869 to 1870, Deutsch was a special correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' during the Ecumenical Council at the Vatican and wrote letters on its deliberations. He died at

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

on 12 May 1873. A collection, ''Literary Remains'', edited by Lady Strangford, was published in 1874, consisting of nineteen papers on such subjects as "The Talmud," "Islam," "Semitic Culture," "Egypt," "Ancient and Modern," "Semitic Languages," "The Targums," "The Samaritan Pentateuch," and "Arabic Poetry."

Notes

References

External links

*
Article on Deutsch in 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, Immanuel Oscar Menahem 1829 births 1873 deaths 19th-century German theologians Jewish orientalists German orientalists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni German Jewish theologians Silesian Jews 19th-century British Jews German emigrants to England People from the Province of Silesia People from Nysa, Poland 19th-century German Jews German male non-fiction writers 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers 19th-century British theologians 19th-century English writers 19th-century Jewish theologians