{{Short description|Polish-American librarian (1861-1921)}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2013}} [[File:Morris Jastrow Jr.jpg|thumb]] '''Morris Jastrow Jr.''' (August 13, 1861 – June 22, 1921) was a Polish-born American [[oriental studies|orientalist]] and [[librarian]] associated with the [[University of Pennsylvania]].
==Biography== He was born in [[Warsaw]] in [[Congress Poland]], and came to [[Philadelphia]] in 1866 when his father, [[Marcus Jastrow]], a renowned Talmudic scholar, accepted a position as Rabbi of [[Congregation Rodeph Shalom (Philadelphia)|Congregation Rodeph Shalom]]. He was educated in the schools of Philadelphia and graduated from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1881. His original intention was to become a [[rabbi]]. For this purpose, he carried on theological studies at the first modern rabbinical seminary in Central Europe, the newly-established [[Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau]] in the equally newly-established [[German Reich|German State]], while pursuing the study of [[Semitic languages]] at German universities.
Jastrow traveled to Europe and studied at [[Leipzig University]], where he received his [[Ph.D.]] in 1884. He then spent another year in the study of [[Semitic languages]] at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], the [[Collège de France]] and the [[Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales|École des Langues Orientales Levant Vivantes]]. On his return to the United States in 1885, he was appointed assistant to his father in Philadelphia, which position he voluntarily resigned after one year. His farewell sermon, entitled "Jews and Judaism" was understood to be a personal repudiation of traditional Judaism.<ref> {{Citation | title = Has Renounced Judaism | newspaper = The New York Times | location = New York, NY | date = December 7, 1886 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E1FF63F5C10738DDDAE0894DA415B8684F0D3 }} </ref>
Jastrow went on to devote himself entirely to linguistic and archaeological studies and gradually extended his field to include the history of religions. He joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1885 as an instructor of Semitic languages, and became professor of Semitic languages in 1891. In 1888, he became a [[librarian]] at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming librarian-in-chief in 1898.
He was president of the [[American Oriental Society]] 1914–15, and of the [[Society of Biblical Literature]] in 1916. He died in [[Jenkintown, Pennsylvania]], in 1921.
He contributed articles to, and was one of the editors of the scholarly ''[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' published 1901-1906 by the Jewish Publication Society; he was, as well, a contributor to the ''[[Encyclopaedia Biblica]]'' (1903), the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' (11th edition), ''[[The New International Encyclopedia]]'', and ''[[Webster's Dictionary]]''.
He edited a fragment of the Babylonian Dibbarra Epic (1891); the [[Arabic]] text of the grammatical treatises of [[Judah ben David Hayyuj]] (1897); ''Selected Essays of [[James Darmesteter]]'' (with a memoir; translation of the essays from the original French by Helen Bachman Jastrow (Mrs. Morris Jastrow, Jr.), 1895); and a series of ''Handbooks on the History of Religion''. A bibliography of his books, monographs and papers, covering the years 1885–1916, was compiled and published (for private circulation) by A. T. Clay and J. A. Montgomery.
Among his students was [[Pezavia O'Connell]], the first [[African American]] scholar to earn a PhD in Semitic languages.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Greene|first=Harry W.|title=Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes: An Educational and Social Study of Negroes Who Have Earned Doctoral Degrees in Course, 1876-1943|publisher=Meador Publishing Company|year=1946|location=Boston|pages=132}}</ref> In 1898, O'Connell wrote a dissertation under Jastrow's supervision at the University of Pennsylvania entitled, ''Synonyms of the Unclean & the Clean in Hebrew''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Connell|first=Pezavia|title=Synonyms of the Unclean & the Clean in Hebrew|publisher=PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania|year=1898}}</ref>
==Works== {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{cite book |title=The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria |publisher=Ginn & Company |place=Boston |year=1898 |url=https://archive.org/details/religionofbabylo00jastuoft}} ** {{cite book|language=de|title=Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens|publisher= J. Ricker'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung |place=Giessen|year= 1905|volume=1|pages=550|url=https://archive.org/stream/diereligionbaby00jastgoog#page/n7/mode/2up |access-date=2011-10-17}} Volume 2 was published in 1912. This work is an enlarged and entirely rewritten German edition of the English edition, together with a separate volume of illustrations bearing on the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians (3 volumes altogether). * {{cite book |title=The Study of Religion |publisher=The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd. |place=London |year=1902 |series=The Contemporary Science Series |url=https://archive.org/details/studyofreligion014276mbp}} (also published NYC: Charles Scribner's Sons) * {{cite book |title=Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |place=New York |year=1911 |series=American Lectures on the History of Religions |url=https://archive.org/details/aspectsofreligio00jast}} * {{cite book |title=Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions |series=Haskell Lectures at [[Oberlin College|Oberlin]] |orig-date=1913 |date=1914 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |place=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/hebrewandbabylon00jastuoft }} * ''Babylonian-Assyrian Birth Omens and Their Cultural Significance'' (1914) * ''The Civil Law of [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]]'' (1915) * {{cite book |title=The War and the Baghdad Railroad |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |place=Philadelphia and London |year=1917 |url=https://archive.org/details/warandthebagdadr001985mbp}} * {{cite book |title=The War and the Coming Peace |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |place=Philadelphia and London |year=1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/warandthebagdadr001985mbp}} * {{cite book |title=A Gentle Cynic |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |place=Philadelphia and London |year=1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/gentlecynicbeing00jastuoft}} * {{cite book|title=Zionism and the Future of Palestine: The Fallacies and Dangers of Political Zionism |publisher=Macmillan Company |place=New York |year=1919 |url=https://archive.org/stream/zionismandfutur00jastgoog#page/n6/mode/1up|lccn=19010235}} * {{cite book |title=The Book Of Job Its Origin Growth And Interpretation Together With A New Translation Based On A Revised Text |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |place=Philadelphia and London |year=1920 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofjobitsorig002921mbp}} * ''The Eastern Question and its Solution'' (1920) * {{cite book|title=The Song of Songs |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |place=Philadelphia and London |year=1921 |url=https://archive.org/details/songofsongsbeing00jatruoft}} * ''An Assyrian Law Code'' (1921) Ann Arbor: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1921.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Gutenberg author|id=8227}} *{{Cite journal|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=41|title=In Memoriam Morris Rastrow, Jr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JK84AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA322|pages=322–344|year=1921}} *{{cite news |title=DR. MORRIS JASTROW JR. DIES SUDDENLY AT 60 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C03E6D61631EF33A25750C2A9609C946095D6CF |work=The New York Times |date=1921-06-23 |access-date=2009-02-27}} *{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Jastrow, Morris |short=x}} *{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Jastrow, Morris, Jr. |short=x}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jastrow, Morris, Jr.}} [[Category:1861 births]] [[Category:1921 deaths]] [[Category:American Assyriologists]] [[Category:American librarians]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American orientalists]] [[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Leipzig University alumni]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]] [[Category:Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau alumni]]