Biography Moses Gaster

1 biography

1.1 life
1.2 life in england
1.3 collector of manuscripts

biography
early life

gaster born in bucharest renowned jewish austrian family had settled in wallachia @ beginning of 19th century. eldest son of chevalier abraham emanuel gaster, consul of netherlands in bucharest , grandson of asriel gaster, prosperous merchant , community leader. mother, phina judith rubinstein, came rabbinical dynasty included rabbi levi isaac ben meir.

after having taken degree in native city (1874), proceeded leipzig, received degree of phd in 1878 , jewish seminary in breslau, gained hattarat hora ah (rabbinical diploma) in 1881. history of romanian popular literature published in bucharest in 1883.

he lecturer on romanian language , literature @ university of bucharest (1881–85), inspector-general of schools, , member of council examining teachers in romania. lectured on romanian apocrypha, whole of had discovered in manuscript.

life in england

having been expelled romania ion brătianu government in 1885 allegedly being member of irredentist society , went england, held lectureship, 1886 , 1891, in slavonic literature @ university of oxford, lectures being later published greco-slavonic literature, london, 1886.

he had not been in england many years before romanian government cancelled decree of expulsion, presented him romanian ordinul naţional pentru merit of first class (1891), , invited him return; however, declined invitation, , in 1893 became naturalised british citizen. in 1895, @ request of romanian government, wrote report on british system of education, printed green book , accepted basis of education in romania.

in 1887 gaster appointed hakham of sephardic or spanish , portuguese congregation in london, in capacity presided on bicentenary of bevis marks synagogue. invited give ilchester lectures @ oxford published in 1887 ilchester lectures on greeko-slavonic literature . appointed principal of judith lady montefiore college, ramsgate, 1891 1896, wrote valuable collection of essays accompanying yearly reports of institution. member of councils of folklore, biblical, archaeological, , royal asiatic societies, writing many papers in interest.

in 1925, gaster appointed 1 of 6 members of honorary board of trustees (curatorium) of yiddish scientific institute (yivo) in wilna, alongside simon dubnow, albert einstein, sigmund freud, edward sapir , chaim zhitlowsky.

gaster made special study of samaritans , became recognised authority on language , literature. visited nablus in palestine, headquarters of samaritan community, , induced them part manuscripts covering whole range of literature. not secure originals had copies made him samaritan priests. gaster among active leaders of zionist movement in england, , while in romania assisted in establishing first jewish colony in palestine.

rising in worldwide jewish affairs became vice-president of first zionist congress in basel, , prominent figure in each succeeding congress. gaster s residence, mizpah 193 maida vale in london served venue talks between prominent zionists , foreign office in 1917. first draft of balfour declaration written @ gaster home on 7 february 1917 in presence of chaim weizmann, nahum sokolow, baron rothschild, sir mark sykes , herbert samuel. other visitors gaster home included churchill, lenin , sigmund freud.

collector of manuscripts

he great collector of manuscripts, having on 2 thousand, hebrew, samaritan , slavonic. @ outbreak of second world war collection moved safekeeping cellars in centre of london. however, water used quench london fires saturated large part of collection, made of items illegible in whole or in part. fortunately many of them had been transliterated hebrew typescript.

the collection comprised on 10,000 fragments in hebrew , judaeo-arabic cairo geniza (the genizah of ben ezra synagogue in old cairo); 350 hebrew codices , scrolls including prayer-books of many jewish communities, apocryphal writings, commentaries, treatises, letters, marriage contracts, piyyutim, , thirteen scrolls of law; 350 samaritan manuscripts, among them manuscripts of pentateuch, commentaries , treatises, , liturgical, historical, chronological , astronomical codices, detailed census lists of samaritans , lists of manuscripts in possession; , 1,500 uncatalogued arabic fragments on paper synagogue of ben ezra.

in 1954 collection purchased john rylands library (since 1972 part of university of manchester), remains. rylands cairo genizah project has been in progress number of years on identification of fragments , digitisation of images of texts.

the gaster collection, number of karaite , yemenite manuscripts purchased library of dr. moses gaster in 1927, , housed @ british library.