Isaak Markus Jost
Encyclopedia
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
–November 22, 1860, Frankfurt (Main)
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
) was a Jewish historical
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
writer.
He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
. In Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
he began to teach, and in 1835 received the appointment of upper master in the Jewish commercial school (called the Philanthropin) at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Here he remained until his death, on the 22nd of November 1860. The work by which he is chiefly known is Geschichte der Israeliten seit den Zeit der Maccabaer, in 9 volumes (1820–1829). This work was afterwards supplemented by Neuere Geschichte den Israeliten von 1815–1845 (1846–1847), and Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Sekten (1857–1859). He also published an abridgment under the title Allgemeine Geschichte des israelitischen Volkes (1831–1832), and an edition of the Mishna with a German translation and notes (6 volumes, 1832–1834). Between 1839 and 1841 he edited the Israelitische Annalen, and he contributed extensively to periodicals.
Biography
Jost was one of a poor family of eleven, most of whom died in infancy; and when his father became blind, the duty of guiding him fell upon Isaac. At the age of ten he lost his father and was taken to WolfenbüttelWolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...
; there he attended the Samsonschule, which at that time was conducted in the style of an old-fashioned cheder
Cheder
A Cheder is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language.-History:...
. This condition improved, however, when Samuel Mayer Ehrenberg took charge of the school in 1807; under him Jost began to study the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. An intimate friendship connected him with Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...
, who was also a pupil in that school, and together they prepared themselves for the entrance examination of the gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
. Jost entered the gymnasium at Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, supporting himself during the years 1809-13 as a tutor in the family of one of the trustees of the Samsonschule; then, supported by Israel Jacobson, he entered the University of Göttingen, removing a year later to that of Berlin. He graduated in 1816, and took up the profession of teaching, refusing an offer of Jacobson, who wished him to become a preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
; for Jost believed that the task of modern Judaism lay not in any reform of the services, but rather in an improvement of education. His first charge was the Bock school, where, in accordance with the system then advocated by Jewish and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
humanitarians, Jewish and Christian pupils were educated together. In 1819, however, the reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
government of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
prohibited the reception of Christian children; this severely injured the school, as a great many Jewish parents had sent their children to it solely because they desired them to come into contact with Christians. Nevertheless, Jost remained at his post until 1835, when he was called to Frankfort-on-the-Main as teacher in the "Philanthropin," which position he held up to his death.
Literary Activity
Having himself suffered from the lack of system that characterized the yeshivaYeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
, Jost took the greatest interest in pedagogics, and his earliest literary work was devoted to the writing of textbooks, among which may be mentioned a grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the English language (Lehrbuch der Englischen Sprache), which went through three editions (Berlin, 1826, 1832, and 1843), and a dictionary to Shakespeare's plays (Berlin, 1830). He wrote also Theoretisch-Praktisches Handbuch zum Unterricht im Deutschen Stil (Berlin, 1835; the title of the second edition was Lehrbuch des Hochdeutschen Ausdruckes in Wort und Schrift, published in 1852). To the same class belongs his Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
history, Neue Jugendbibel, Enthaltend die Religiösen und Geschichtlichen Urkunden der Hebräer, mit Sorgfältiger Auswahl für die Jugend Uebersetzt und Erläutert: Erster Theil, die Fünf Bücher Mosis (Berlin, 1823).
In spite of his duties as a teacher and of his varied interests, Jost never neglected Jewish literature
Jewish literature
Jewish Literature refers to works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works of various themes written in Jewish languages, or literary works in other languages written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature and rabbinic literature...
, especially Jewish history
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
. His first work in this line was Geschichte der Israeliten Seit der Zeit der Makkabäer bis auf Unsere Tage (9 volumes, Berlin, 1820–28), which was followed by a small compendium under the title Geschichte des Israelitischen Volkes ... für Wissenschaftlich-Gebildete Leser (2 volumes, Berlin, 1832). This work, which ended with the Napoleonic era
Napoleonic Era
The Napoleonic Era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory...
, was continued in his Neuere Geschichte der Israeliten (Berlin, 1846–47), bringing it down to the date of its publication. Toward the end of his life he wrote another historical work, Geschichte des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten (3 volumes, Leipzig, 1857–59), which deals with the whole of Jewish history down to 1858. Of other literary works of Jewish interest his edition of the Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
with vocalized text, German translation in Hebrew characters
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
, and Hebrew commentary, deserves special mention (6 volumes, Berlin, 1832-36).
Jost appeared repeatedly as an apologist of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
against political reactionaries
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
and detractors of rabbinical literature; his Was Hat Herr Chiarini in Angelegenheit der Europäischen Juden Geleistet? (Berlin, 1830) was directed against Abbé Chiarini's "Théorie du Judaïsme"; and his Offenes Sendschreiben an den Geheimen Oberregierungsrath Streckfuss (Berlin, 1833), against Streckfuss' "Verhältnis der Juden zu den Christlichen Staaten." When in the beginning of the reign of Frederick William IV of Prussia the rumor was spread that the king contemplated an alteration of the legal position of the Jews in a reactionary sense, Jost wrote Legislative Fragen Betreffend die Juden im Preussischen Staate (Berlin, 1842) and Nachträge zu den Legislativen Fragen (Berlin 1842). Between 1839 and 1841 he edited the Israelitische Annalen, a weekly chiefly devoted to the collection of historical material, and between 1841 and 1842 the Hebrew periodical Zion (in collaboration with his friend and colleague Michael Creizenach
Michael Creizenach
Michael Creizenach was a German Jewish educator and theologian.Creizenach is typical of the era of transition, following the epoch of Moses Mendelssohn...
). He was also a frequent contributor to the Jewish press, to almanacs, and to year-books.
As historian
When Jost published his first historical work, Jewish historiographyHistoriography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
was still in its infancy. Of older works, that of Jacques Basnage was the best; the sources had not yet been collected; and for the religious history the unsystematic and uncritical works of the chroniclers were the only guide and source. It was inevitable that, with the appearance of Zunz's monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s and the numerous similar works, published either independently or in magazines, the work of Jost should soon become antiquated. He recognized this himself at the end of his life by taking up the work again. Another shortcoming is his rationalistic attitude toward the narratives in Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic sources, which leads him to see in many of the Talmudic authors shrewd impostors who played on the credulity of their contemporaries by feigning miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s (see his presentation of Eliezer ben Hyrcanus in his Allgemeine Geschischte, ii. 108). His earlier works lack to a great extent the strictly historical interest, and evidence too much of Jewish sentiment (Allgemeine Geschichte ii. 387). His rationalism is found also in the bitterness with which he speaks of Judæo-German ("Jahrbuch," ii. 43). His best work is in the presentation of modern Jewish history, in which he is singularly exact and conscientious, and to which he gives an exhaustive literature of sources; here he exhibits not only a fine discernment of what is historically important, but a spirit of fairness which is the more creditable because he wrote in the midst of the struggle for Reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....
.
Jost endeavors to do justice to Samson R. Hirsch's mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
as well as to Aaron Chorin
Aaron Chorin
Áron Chorin was a Hungarian rabbi and pioneer of religious reform. He favored the use of the organ and of prayers in the vernacular, and was instrumental in founding schools along modern lines. Chorin was thus regarded as a leader of the newer Judaism...
's rationalism; he recognizes the importance of M. A. Günzburg and of Isaac Bär Lewinsohn, while Grätz, who wrote on this period a quarter of a century later, ignores Günzburg and Lewinsohn and speaks of Chorin with the bitterness of a partisan. It is undoubtedly due to that impartiality that Jost's work suffered by comparison with the warm Jewish spirit which permeates Grätz's work (see Grätz, "Gesch." xi. 456).