Robert Travers Herford 14 Gordon Square blue plaque

Robert Travers Herford (1860–1950) was a British Unitarian minister and scholar of

rabbinical literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic w ...

Biography

He was the grandson of John Gooch Robberds and brother of Professor C. H. Herford, of

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. Herford was educated at Owens College, Manchester, and

Manchester New College Harris Manchester College (HMC) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Warrington in 1757 as a college for Unitarianism, Unitarian students and moved to ...

, London (B.A. 1880) Then, as a Hibbert Scholar, he studied at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. From 1914 to 1925 he was librarian of

Dr Williams's Library Dr Williams's Library was a small English research library located in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, the contents have now been relocated to Manchester. Historically, it has had a strong Unitarian focus. The library has also been known as ...

, Grafton Street, London. In 1886 Herford's first effort in

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 ...

ics appeared in an article on "The Jerusalem Talmud" contributed to '' The Christian Reformer''. He was noted as one of the first Christian scholars of the

Pharisees The Pharisees (; ) were a Jews, Jewish social movement and school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. Following the Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70), destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, Pharisaic beliefs became ...

to take a neutral view between Talmud and New Testament.

Works

* ''Christianity in Talmud and Midrash'', 1903 *''Pharisaism: Its Aim and Its Method'', 1912 * Volume 5, Issue 3 Menorah Association (New York, N.Y.) -- R. Travers Herford The Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture for 1919; INTRODUCTORY NOTE Bv ... 1860; educated at Manchester, London, and Leyden universities; Unitarian minister at Stand, Lancashire, until 1914, ..." * ''Ethics of the Talmud: Sayings of the Fathers'', 1962

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herford, R. Travers English Unitarian ministers 1860 births 1950 deaths Alumni of Harris Manchester College, Oxford Christian Hebraists Authors of works on the Talmud Judaic scholars