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KAGANOFF /RABB IN IC LITERATURE IN THE U.S.
83
Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, generally acknowledged as the lead
ing figure in the Conservative Movement in American Judaism ,
was born in Cincinnati in 1895 and received academic degrees
from the City College o f New York and Columbia University.
He was orda ined by the Jewish Theological Seminary and held
various positions with the Seminary until he was appo in ted pres
iden t in 1940 and chancellor in 1951. In 1926, he edited the
text o f David Kimhi’s
Commentary on the Book of Isaiah
which
was published by Columbia University Press. In 1927, Ju d ah
Kaufman published a critical edition o f the only surviving
manuscript o f the
Sefer ha-Eshkol
by the 15th-century polemicist
and kabbalist, Yomtov Lipmann Muehlhausen. The study was
originally subm itted to Dropsie College as a doctoral dissertation
in 1919.
In 1929, the well known diamond merchant, Nehem iah Sam
uel Libowitz published the text o f Leon Modena’s
Ari Nohem,
a work written by the 17th-century Italian rabbi against Kab
balah and the putative au tho rsh ip o f the Zohar by Simeon Bar
Yohai. A second edition o f this work was published in lerusalem
in 1971.
In 1932, Elias Nathan Rabinowitz published a critical edition
o f the
Midrash ha-Gadol on Leviticus
which he culled from various
manuscripts and early p rin ted sources. In 1932, Mordecai
Wechsler published a Yiddish translation o f the apologetic work
Hizzuk Emunah
by the 16th-century Karaite scholar Isaac Ben
Abraham T rok i and the following year the previously m en
tioned Michael Higger published a critical edition o f a halakhic
decision by Isaiah T ran i, a 13th-century Italian tosafist, talmudic
scholar and decisor on divorce and kosher slaughtering. A sec
ond edition o f his work appeared in Jerusalem in 1971.
Israel Davidson was born in Lithuania in 1870. In 1888 he
arrived in the United States and completed his studies at Co
lumbia University. He later jo ined the faculty o f the Jewish T h e
ological Seminary and in 1915 was appointed professor o f Me
dieval Hebrew Literature. He became internationally prom inen t
in this area. In 1934, the Seminary published Davidson’s critical
edition of Salamon Ben Yeruhim ’s work
Sefer Milhamot ha-Shem,
consisting o f the 11th-century Karaite’s arguments against
Saadia Gaon and his polemics against rabbinic Judaism .
In 1934, the society Mefitse Ginze Kadmoniot (The Society
for the Diffusion o f Ancient Treasures), published a new edition