(Redirected from Samuel Judah Löb Rapoport)
Image from The Jewish Encyclopedia

Portrait of 'Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport'.
'Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport' (
June 1,
1790 -
October 16,
1867) (
Hebrew: 'שלמה יהודה כהן רפאפורט'),
Austrian
rabbi and
Jewish scholar, was born at
Lemberg.
After various experiences in business, Rapoport became successively rabbi of
Tarnopol (1837) and of
Prague (1840). He was one of the founders of the new "
Wissenschaft des Judentums" movement. His chief work was the first part of an (
unfinished) encyclopaedia (Ereklz Millin, 1852). Equally notable were his biographies of
Saadia Gaon,
Nathan (author of the
Arukh),
Hai Gaon,
Eleazar Kalir and others.
Thrown upon his own resources about 1817, Rapoport became cashier of the meat-tax farmers. He had already given evidence of marked critical ability, though his writings previously published were of a light character—poems and translations. His critical talent, however, soon revealed itself. In 1824 he wrote for ''Bikkure ha'Ittim'' an article on the independent Jewish tribes of
Arabia and
Abyssinia. Though this article gained him some recognition, a more permanent impression was made by his work on
Saadia Gaon and his times (published in the same journal in 1829), the first of a series of biographical works on the medieval Jewish sages. Because of this work he received recognition in the scholarly world and gained many enthusiastic friends, especially
S. D. Luzzatto (Bernfeld, ''Toledot Shir'', p. 33).
After the fashion in rabbinic circles, Rapoport was known by an acronym "Shir", formed by the initial letters of his Hebrew name 'Sh'elomo 'Y'ehuda 'R'apoport.
He died at Prague in 1867.
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