Israel Davidson

Israel Davidson (1870, Jonava, Lithuania - 1939, Great Neck, New York) was an American Jewish writer and publisher and has been recognized as one of the leading American Hebrew writers in his era. His magnum opus was the four volume Otsar ha-shirah veha-piyut = Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry (NY, 1924–1933).

Davidson studied in yeshivas in Jonava, Volozhin, and Slobodka. In 1898, he emigrated to New York, worked at a few occupations before earning a Ph.D from Columbia University.

Famous quotes containing the words israel and/or davidson:

    Who is the LORD, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.
    Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 5:2.

    Pharaoh.

    There is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases.
    —Donald Davidson (b. 1917)