David Kaufmann - His Life

His Life

In 1867 he went to the Jewish Theological Seminary at Breslau, where he studied for ten years, attending at the same time the university of that city. In the summer of 1874 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig, and on January 29, 1877, he was ordained rabbi. In the latter year he declined the offer of a professorship at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, preferring to accept instead the chairs of history, philosophy of religion, and homiletics at the newly founded Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest, which he continued to hold till his death. He also at the same time taught Greek and German in the preparatory school of the same institution, carrying on this work in the Hungarian language, which he had rapidly mastered.

As librarian of the seminary he acquired the large library of Lelio della Torre of Padua, the library of the seminary becoming by this addition one of the most valuable Hebrew libraries of Europe. As a teacher Kaufmann was highly successful; and his relation to his students was that of friendly adviser. He maintained a lively correspondence not only with the most eminent Jewish scholars, but also with the leaders in other branches of science. Kaufmann was a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Madrid and a member of the executive committee of the Budapest branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He died at Karlovy Vary, Bohemia, on July 6, 1899.