Moses Gaster's Biography(Books)

Jewish scholar moses gaster (1856-1939) was born in Romania
but emigrated to England, where he lectured at Oxford

was also principal of Judith Montefiore College, Ramsgate,
from 1891 to 1896, and wrote valuable essays accompanying

University. His wrote numerous books of theology, folklore,
history, and literature, including History of Rumanian

the yearly reports of that institution. He is a member of
the councils of the Folklore, Biblical, Archeological, and

Popular Literature (1883) and five-volume Sephardic prayer
book (1901-6).

Royal Asiatic societies, and has written many papers in the
interest of these bodies.

Born in Bucharest, after having taken a degree in his native

Gaster was among the most active leaders of the Zionist

city (1874), he proceeded to the Jewish Seminary in Breslau,
where he received the degree of Ph.D. in 1878 and the

movement in England, and even while in Romania he assisted
in establishing the first Jewish colony in Palestine. He was

Hattarat Hora'ah in 1881. His history of Romanian popular
literature was published in Bucharest in 1883.

vice-president of the first Basel Congress, and was a
prominent figure in each succeeding congress.

Gaster's major work, in which he invested ten years of his

* Jewish Folk-Lore in the Middle Ages (London, 1887);

life, is a Romanian chrestomathy and glossary covering the
period from the dawn of Romanian literature down to 1830. He

* The Sword of Moses from an ancient manuscript book of
magic, with introduction, translation, and index (ib.

1896);
* The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (ib. 1899) copy at Google

schools, and a member of the council for examining teachers
in Romania. He also lectured on the Romanian apocrypha, the

Books;
* History of the Ancient Synagogue of the Spanish and

whole of which he had discovered in manuscript.

Portuguese Jews, a memorial volume in celebration of the
two-hundredth anniversary of its inauguration (ib. 1901).

Gaster wrote various text-books for the Jewish community of
Romania, made a Romanian translation of the Siddur, and

compiled a short Scripture history.

* "Beitrage zur Vergleichenden Sagen und Marchenkunde",

Having been expelled from Romania by the Ion Bratianu
government in 1885 for allegedly "being a member of an

irredentist society", he went to England, where he was
appointed lecturer in Slavonic literature at the University

* "The Apocalypse of Abraham, from the Roman Text", in
the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, ix. 195;

of Oxford, his lectures being published afterward as
Greco-Slavonic Literature, London, 1886.

* "The Unknown Hebrew Versions of the Tobit Legend," in
ib. 1897, p. 27;

He had not been in England many years before the Romanian

* "The Oldest Version of Midrash Meghillah", in Kohut
Memorial Volume;

government canceled the decree of expulsion, presented him
with the Romanian Ordinul National "Pentru Merit" of the

* "Hebrew Text of One of the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs", in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical

first class (1891), and invited him to return - but he
declined the invitation. In 1895, at the request of the

Arch?ology, xvi. 33 et seq.;
* "Contributions to the History of A?i?ar and Nadam", in

Romanian government, he wrote a report on the British system
of education, which was printed as a "green book" and

the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1900, p.
301.

accepted as a basis of education in Romania.

* Young Israel, 1898;

In 1887 Gaster was appointed hakham of the Spanish and
Portuguese congregation in London, in which capacity he

* Jewish Chronicle and Jewish World, 1887;
* Jewish Year Book, 1900-01, pp. 270-271.