A HEBREW SAMUEL JOHNSON.

Evening Star, Issue 11681, 13 February 1902, Page 5

A HEBREW SAMUEL JOHNSON.

There is in New York a Hebrew Samuel Johnson, who manipulates a rusty printing machine for a living. His name is Abraham Rosenberg. He is a profound Hebraist, and has been editor of all the New York pure Hebrew journals. He is a Russian, and, with Kibbi Jacob Rains, of Libau, at, tho age of sixteen they jointly reviewed in one ye«r the thirty-six tractates of the Babylonian Talmud*. Then Rosenberg took to secular Sadies; gained a degree in medicine at the University of Kiob, and became Crown Rabbi of Pinsk. In 1881 he was appointed Rabbi of Nikolaiev, and was actually appointed Professor of History, Theology, and Rabbinic at the local university. In 1890 he was practically expelled. The old man has in MS. a book ' Men of Fame,' being a series of biographies of the Talmudic Rabbis. Two volumes of his 'History of the Jews in Russia' were printed. But has masterpiece is a ten-volumed Hebrew Encyclopedia of the Bible, entitled ' Ozar-ha-Shemot.' Every noun in the Pentateuch is explained philolcgically, historically, and scientifically. It is scholars declare, the most complete reference work in existence. Two volumes have seen the light, the author working his own printing press at his book when he is not doing odd jobs! It is a queer world, in which •eholftrsmp not linked to commerce meets with M little recognition^—' The Jewish World.'