Solomon Grayzel (1896–1980) was an American historian who authored ''

A History of the Jews A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...

'' and testified as an expert witness in '' Abington School District v. Schempp'', the case that declared school-sponsored Bible reading in American

public schools Public school may refer to: *State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government *Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...

to be unconstitutional. Among other topics, his scholarly research focused on the relationship between the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and the Jews, including '' The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century'' and many other scholarly essays and books on the topic. Grayzel was born on February 18, 1896 in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

, a major hub of Eastern European Jewry prior to the Holocaust which is now the capital of Belarus. He emigrated to the United States as an adolescent, settling in the Brownsville section of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York, with his family in 1908. Grayzel received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the City College of New York in 1917 and a Master of Arts degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1920. He received his ''

semikhah Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long ...

'' (rabbinical ordination) from the

Conservative Movement Conservative movement may refer to: *Conservatism in the United States, in politics *Conservatism, a political philosophy *Conservative Judaism Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious moveme ...

at the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studi ...

in 1921, and earned a Ph.D. in history from Dropsie College in 1926. While working on his doctorate, Grayzel took his first and only full-time pulpit position at Congregation Beth El in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 20 ...

. He was the editor-in-chief of the

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by reform Rabbi Joseph Krausko ...

from 1939-1966. ----

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grayzel, Solomon 1896 births 1980 deaths Belarusian Jews American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Jewish American historians Historians of Jews and Judaism Writers from Minsk People from Brownsville, Brooklyn Writers from Brooklyn City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients Dropsie College alumni Belarusian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American rabbis Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers