Samuel Belkin: Difference between revisions

| name = Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin

| image =Samuel Belkin 1938.jpg

| death_place = [[New York City]], [[United States]]

| spouse = Selma Ehrlich<ref name=Ohles>{{cite book|last1=Ohles|first1=Frederik|last2=Ohles|first2=Shirley M.|last3=Ramsay|first3=John G.|title=Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators|date=1997|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=0-313-29133-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict0000ohle/page/22 22–23]|url=https://booksarchive.google.comorg/books?id=PBj5details/biographicaldict0000ohle/page/22|url-zHEMvoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&faccess=falseregistration|accessdate=19 November 2016}}</ref> Abby Polesie<ref name=Ohles/><ref name=NYTobit/>

'''Samuel Belkin''' (December 12, 1911 in Svislach, Byelorussia &ndash; April 19, 1976 in the Bronx, N.Y.) is best known aswas the second [[University President|President]] of [[Yeshiva University]]. AAn American [[Rabbi]] and distinguished [[Torah]] scholar, he is credited with leading Yeshiva University through a period of substantial expansion.<ref>Museum of the Jewish People, ''Samuel Belkin'', {{cite web |url=httphttps://wwwdbs.bh.org.il/namesluminary/POW/Belkin.aspbelkin-samuel |title=ArchivedSamuel copyBelkin |accessdate=2008-02-10 |deadurlwork=yesThe Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot |archiveurlarchive-date=2018-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2007120422370420180612140921/httphttps://dbs.bh.org.il/Namesluminary/POW/Belkin.aspbelkin-samuel |archivedate=2007url-12-04 |dfstatus=dead }}</ref>

Belkin was born in 1911 in [[Svislach]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Belarus]]) and studied in the [[yeshiva]]s of [[Slonim]] and [[Mir yeshiva (Poland)|Mir]]. Recognized at a young age as an ''illui'', a genius, he was ordained as a rabbi[[Rabbi]] at the age of seventeen by the famed [[Yisrael Meir Kagan]], the ''Chofetz Chaim''. He also studied for a time in the Mir.

As a child, he sought to leave Poland after he witnessed his father being shot by a policeman in 1919.<ref>Samuel Belkin, Rabbi William G. Braude, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 44, 1977 (1977), pp. xvii-xx in JSTOR, American Academy for Jewish Research.</ref> He emigrated to the United States in 1929, studied with [[Harry Austryn Wolfson]] at Harvard and received his doctorate (concerned with the writings of [[Philo]]) at [[Brown University]] in 1935, one of the first awarded for [[Jewish studies|Judaic studies in American academia]]. In 1940, an elaboration of his Ph.D. thesis was published with the title "Philo and the Oral Law — The Philonic Interpretation of Biblical Law in Relation to the Palestinian Halakah." <ref name="ReferenceA">Jewish Virtual Library, ''Samuel Belkin''.</ref>

He then joined the faculty of Yeshiva College, New York, where he taught [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]]. He became a full professor in 1940 and was appointed dean of its [[Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary]] (RIETS) the same year. In 1943, Belkin was named became president of the college,<ref>{{cite news|title=Elected as President Of Yeshiva at Age of 32|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/06/29/88548509.html?pageNumber=17|accessdate=18 November 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=June 29, 1943|page=17}}</ref> Under his guidance, the institution expanded to become [[Yeshiva University]] in 1945. Belkin was a visionary who transformed Yeshiva from a small college and rabbinical seminary into a significant institution of considerable stature in Judaic Studies, [[natural science|natural]] and [[social sciences]], and the [[humanities]]. Under his presidency, the [[Albert Einstein College of Medicine]] was opened as Yeshiva University's medical school.

Belkin stepped down as university president in 1975.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Spiegel|first1=Irving|title=Belkin, Citing Illness, Resigns as Yeshiva President|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/09/archives/belkin-citing-illness-resigns-as-yeshiva-president.html|accessdate=18 November 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 9, 1975|page=29}}</ref> He died in 1976 in [[New York City]] after an illness. He was 64.<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news|last1=Spiegel|first1=Irving|title=Samuel Belkin of Yeshiva Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/19/archives/samuel-belkin-of-yeshiva-dies-32year-president-noted-as-scholar.html?_r=0|accessdate=18 November 2016|work=New York Times|date=April 19, 1976|page=30}}</ref>

*Jil Simon (2013), and

* Francesca Rebecca Acocella (2016), and

*[https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/belkin-samuel Samuel Belkin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140921/https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/belkin-samuel |date=2018-06-12 }}, The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot

*[httphttps://www.hebrewbooks.org/12251 Halachic article by Belkin (hebrew) from the journal ''Talpiyot'']

[[Category:People from GrodnoVolkovyssky GovernorateUyezd]]

[[Category:ImperialJews from the Russian JewsEmpire]]