Israel Abrahams (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל אַבְּרָהָםס, romanized: Yisraʾel ʾAvrahams; (1858-11-26)26 November 1858 – (1925-10-06)6 October 1925) was a British Jewish scholar of Jewish studies, including homiletics, Talmudics, Rabbinic literature, and Jewish history at Jews' College and the University of Cambridge. He wrote a number of classics on Judaism—most notably, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896), a history of European Jews in the Middle Ages.
Life and writings
He was educated at Jews' College, where his father Barnett Abrahams served as principal, and at University College, London. In 1881, he received the degree of MA from the University of London. Abrahams taught secular subjects as well as homiletics at Jews' College, and was appointed senior tutor of that institution in 1900. He was a forceful lecturer and an earnest lay preacher. As honorary secretary of the Jewish Historical Society of England and as a member of the Committee for Training Jewish Teachers, he was very active. He was also a member of the Committee of the Anglo-Jewish Association, and of several other institutions of the community. He co-founded the newspaper The Jewish Guardian.
Abrahams collaborated with Claude Montefiore to write the book Aspects of Judaism, which was published in 1895. His chief works were Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896) and Chapters on Jewish Literature (1898). In 1889, he became joint editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review and helped materially to raise the prestige of the publication. He was a prolific contributor to periodical literature, and was especially well known for his articles on literary subjects, which appeared weekly in the Jewish Chronicle under the title of "Books and Bookmen." He also contributed to the Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903).
