(Excerpt from Parody in Jewish Literature
The imitative t...)
Excerpt from Parody in Jewish Literature
The imitative tendency in man, which sometimes manifests itself in parody, is much older than the art of literary expression. Long before man learned to ridicule or amuse his fellow-man by means of the written word, he must have resorted to the art of mimicry; before he became an adept in turning religious hymns into wine-songs and ribaldry, he must have practiced the art of imitating the mannerisms and peculiarities of those whom he loved or hated. This tendency might, therefore, be studied not only in literature, but in social life as well, and a few illustrations of the manner in which it has played a part in the social life of the Jews are not out of place here.
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Israel Davidson was an American Jewish Hebraist, writer and publisher and has been recognized as one of the leading American Hebrew writers in his era.
Background
Israel Davidson was born on May 27, 1870 Jonava, Lithuania. He was the thirteenth child of David Wolf Movshovitz and Rebecca (Cohen) Movshovitz. Since no other child before him had survived, his parents followed folk custom and named him Alter, "the old one, " in hope that he would live to old age. Orphaned of both parents before his fifth birthday, he and his younger sister were taken to Grodno, into the home of their poor but scholarly uncle, Isaac Tanhum Klebansky, who adopted the boy and reared him in the traditions of piety and love of learning.
When Davidson resolved to leave for America, instead of choosing between the family names of his father or uncle he decided to call himself Israel, the son of David, or Davidson.
Education
In the Yeshiva (Talmudic school) of Grodno, and later, at the age of fifteen, in the renowned Yeshiva of Slobodka (near Kovno), Davidson became known as a mathmid, the enduring or diligent student.
In the United States at nineteen he entered the first grade of public school, completing the course of eight grades in one year. For the next five years he attended City College, graduating with honors in English in 1895. He continued at Columbia University, studying Semitics under Prof. Richard J. H. Gottheil and earning his Ph. D. in 1902.
Career
Davidson arrived in New York City May 17, 1888. Penniless and friendless, he peddled matches and shoelaces in the streets, worked in a grocery store and later as a night watchman in a blanket shop, bent upon continuing his studies.
He served as chaplain at Sing Sing prison until 1905 and thereafter as principal of a Hebrew school at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum until 1917. In 1905 he joined as instructor the reorganized Jewish Theological Seminary of America, becoming its registrar in 1915 and in 1917 professor of medieval Hebrew literature.
The rich harvest of Davidson's attainments is the more remarkable since he began his scholarly career at a relatively late age. His first major effort, Parody in Jewish Literature, appeared in 1907, expanded from a Ph. D. thesis to a comprehensive survey of all types of parody in Hebrew letters. His edition (1914) of Sepher Shaashuim (The Book of Delight) by Joseph ben Meir ibn Zabara established standards of excellence for a critical publication of the works of a medieval poet. The next year brought to light Saadia's Polemic against Hiwi al-Balkhi, the fruit of a summer visit to England, where his keen eye unraveled a hidden acrostic in a fragment in the Cambridge University Library and so retrieved from oblivion the figure of a remarkable medieval heretic. Probably his proudest find was Mahzor Yannai (1919), discovered from photographs of palimpsests, the lower writing of which comprised Aquila's Greek translations of the Old Testament, the upper writing consisting of Hebrew unidentifiable compositions in which again the acumen of Davidson detected the acrostic of Yannai, father of all rhymed expression in Hebrew.
From accurate analysis of literary structure and correct interpretation of recorded traditions, Davidson inferred the existence of a whole triennial cycle of liturgical compositions, enabling subsequent scholars to restore nearly two-thirds of the lost work. His Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol (1923), the copious new texts by unknown poets in his volume of the Genizah Studies in Memory of . Solomon Schechter (vol. III, 1928), the polemic of Salmon ben Yeruhim, The Book of the Wars of the Lord (1934), and the collected poetic remains of Saadia Gaon, published posthumously in 1941, would have sufficed to establish Davidson among the foremost scholars of Hebrew literature of the Middle Ages.
The Thesaurus has become a fundamental reference work, indispensable for all research in medieval Hebrew poetry.
Of his unpublished manuscripts, a comprehensive Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Proverbs, on which he worked for many years, is the most outstanding; as of 1956 it was being prepared for publication in Jerusalem in accordance with his instructions.
Achievements
The honors that came late in Davidson's life among them the invitation as guest professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1926, the first award of the Bialik prize for research in Hebrew literature in 1936, and honorary degrees from Hebrew Union and Dropsie colleges (1937)--affected but little the humble and lovable scholar.
His greatest achievement is his four-volume Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry (1924 - 33), in which over 35, 000 poems by 2, 843 authors are fully registered, with all relevant information culled from widely scattered literature, the list of works used, with its 2, 680 items, being in itself a sourcebook of unrivaled exhaustiveness.
(Excerpt from Parody in Jewish Literature
The imitative t...)
Personality
Davidson had an indomitable capacity for work. Life and labor were synonyms with him, and he kept unremittingly at his self-assigned tasks even in the last eight years, after his first heart attack. But he never lost his delightful sense of humor, his saving grace in bitter beginnings and in later years of illness.
Connections
In 1906 Davidson married Carrie Dreyfuss of Brooklyn, who created a happy home for him, for their two daughters, Gladys and Jessica, and for the host of friends and students who, as his name began to spread, flocked to his study.
