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JEWISH HEADS OF OXFORD COLLEGES |
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Openly Jewish undergraduates were allowed into Oxford only from 1856, and could hold college fellowships only from 1871, when the clerical association of fellowships was abandoned. Given their relatively short presence in Oxford, and the underlying established Church attachment of the university in a general sort of way, it is remarkable that there have been some 18 heads of Oxford colleges in the 140 years during which this has been possible. (Various names are used for the head of a college: warden, principal, provost, master, dean, president, rector.) This is in part due to the British reception of refugees from Europe in the run-up to the Second World War and in particular to Oxford’s generosity in welcoming refugee scholars. They repaid the university’s hospitality with the greatest contribution to the university, both as heads and as professors of renown. In retrospect, the part played by Jewish heads is far removed from the situation faced by Solomon Lazarus, who studied at Balliol in the 1880s, became editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and was advised by Jowett, the celebrated Master of Balliol, that he should anglicise his name, which became Sidney Lee.
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Abendana, Isaac, born in the mid seventeenth century, died 17th July 1699.
Hebraist and book collector
Born in Spain, brother of the celebrated Jacob Abendana, the distinguished Spanish physician and Haham, was taken at an early age to Hamburg, Germany where he completed rabbinical studies and then Leyden, Holland where he studied medicine. Isaac and his brother Jacob Abendana clubbed together to produce Hebrew books for the Christian market, and they thereby became acquainted with some of the most eminent Christian Hebraists of the day. Having been approached by Adam Boreel-who with John Durie and Samuel Hartlib in England hoped to persuade a learned Jew to translate the Mishnah, the Hebraic core of the Talmud, into Latin, Isaac Abendana arrived in Oxford on 3 June 1662 and presented himself to Edward Pococke and other prominent Hebraists there. |
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Oxford Jewish Personalities of the Modern Period |
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