Arnold Ehrlich
Encyclopedia
Arnold Bogomul Ehrlich was a scholar of bible and rabbinics whose work spanned the latter part of the 19th and the early 20th century. A formidable scholar, he is said to have possessed perfect recall, with an outstanding knowledge of Bible and Talmud
, and to have spoken 39 languages. He is best known for his book Mikra Kiphshuto (The Bible according to its Literal Meaning) in three Hebrew volumes published from 1899–1901, in which he sought to bring the results of modern textual criticism
of the Bible to a wider Hebrew audience, emphasising the Torah to be a document made by humans complete with scribal and copying errors, not a perfect work dictated to Moses at Sinai; and as a formative intellectual influence on the young Mordecai Kaplan
. Ehrlich earned a living as a private tutor, and teaching at the Hebrew Preparatory School of the Temple Emanu-El Theological School of New York. However, he was never considered for a professorial post at Hebrew Union College
, apparently because in his early twenties he had helped the German Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch
revise his Hebrew translation of the New Testament, a work used to proselytize
Jewish converts to Christianity.
, Poland, Ehrlich was married at fourteen and had one son named Mark. At an early age he studied German in his native Polish Village, and had read the Bible in the Moses Mendelssohn
translation. At seventeen, Ehrlich came to the conclusion that he could no longer abide the stringencies of his environment and he sought association with the wider fields of knowledge he hoped to find in Germany. His wife did not agree with the move or his liberal views, and her and their son did not go with him to Germany. He then went on his own and he entered school there to learn arithmetic, geography, and other elementary school subjects alongside boys of ten. Such subjects were simple for a lad who started learning the German language at five years old.
It was at this time in Germany that Ehrlich somehow came to the attention of Professor Franz Delitzsch
, who engaged him as his amanuensis. This association would turn into an evil spectre later in his life because at Delitzsch's insistence Ehrlich revised the Hebrew translation of the New Testament (10th Edition) which was to be utilized for proselytization among Jews. During this time he encountered the work of Julius Wellhausen
, Kuehnen, and the whole school of Biblical criticism which fascinated him. This in turn made him accept the theory that the Bible was constructed of a patchwork quilt of documents, but his later work was a revolt against the destructiveness of the "higher criticism." The Hebrew language was bred into his bones, and it became his conviction that the Bible could be understood only as one devoted oneself to its language and to an understanding of the Hebrew idiom through its cognates. There are rumors that Ehrlich was baptized in Germany, but there is no proof or evidence of this. Had it been true, the officers at the Temple Emanu-El would never had considered him for a place as a teacher (not professor) in the Emanu-El Theological School of New York where he taught after he immigrated to Manhattan
, New York from Hamburg
, Germany in 1874. His Naturalization date is July 11, 1881, and he lists his occupation as "Teacher of Languages."
Ehrlich wrote and spoke in fluent English magnificently and spoke it fluently and flawlessly, though with a slight accent. He was a close student of many languages, and was both a philologist and a student of the Hebrew Bible
. He knew 39 tongues, which included all the Semitic languages
, all the languages of Western Europe except Finnish, all the Slavic language dialects, as well as Sanskrit
, Latin
, and Greek
. He explained the relationship Israelite and Canaanite civilizations bear to that of the Greeks upon the basis of language similarities and idiomatic likeness. In his "leisure" he had written what was practically a Randglossen to both the Iliad
and the Odyssey
. He was a lover of the Greek classics and had a great comprehension of classic civilizations. He had a special love for Arabic. He enjoyed it as a language, he enjoyed its literature and its poetry. Many of those who taught Arabic in the Semitics departments of universities came to Ehrlich for instruction, and among them was Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil of Columbia University
, son of Gustav Gottheil
who claims that he admitted to changing his faith to Christianity in Germany and was remorseful for it. This declaration was never signed by Ehrlich, but only by witnesses "claiming" this event took place in the late 19th century.
During his years in the United States, Jewish scholars and students sought him out, but Ehrlich surely paid a frightful price for that New Testament translation he did at a young age with Delitzsch. Many regard this translation as a beautiful piece of modern Hebrew composition, but it cost him and he was to pay for it throughout his life. He was sorely resentful of the fact that, despite general recognition of his status as a scholar, he had not been chosen Professor of Bible at the Hebrew Union College. He was never invited to teach in either of the major rabbinical seminaries and among the Orthodox he was disliked. No one wanted to appoint a man with such a background as engaging in a New Testament
translation, and who would invite criticism from all conservative quarters. He also insisted upon "mister" with his pupils because no university had ever granted him a higher academic degree.
He is the author of a biblical commentary called Mik'ra Kiph'shuto ("The Plain Meaning of the Bible"). It embodies his main point of view that the Bible itself is the best source for the knowledge of Hebrew as a language and for the ancient Hebraic ideas, even though the cross references of comparative passages or words might be separated in widely disparate ages. He felt that somehow original meanings persisted and that the cross references or parallel passages often shed light upon obscure sentences as well as upon mistakes in the original Bible text. Modern archaeology has opened new vistas through the centuries, and Ehrlich had no knowledge, in his time, of what the future would bring into this realm. It is amazing nevertheless that, depending solely upon language and upon his own intuitions, he arrived at explanations and interpretations which still have validity to this day.
He had a strong influence on the young Mordecai Kaplan
.
Ehrlich's strongest affection was for Louis Ginzberg
of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He admired Dr. Ginzberg's thoroughness, his vast and comprehensive knowledge, and the originality of his mind. He also had a high regard for Professors Malter and Margolis of the Dropsie College. But Ehrlich had no doubts as to his own status, for he was convinced of his own superiority in his chosen area of research, and his egotism was often very disturbing.
Ehrlich was antisocial in his life in that he felt uncomfortable and uneasy in ordinary human relationships. But he was completely social in his outlook, in his passion for justice, in his desire for the self-realization of all people regardless of race, color or creed. He was totally removed from people and came alive only when he discussed his philological interests.
He was an avid reader in all fields, particularly in philosophy, and maintained a steady correspondence with Hermann Cohen
until his death one year before Ehrlich. As a matter of self discipline, he required himself to read through Immanuel Kant
's Critique of Pure Reason
every year.
Ehrlich's one diversion, strangely enough, was to attend the primitive movies of the early 20th century. He adored Westerns and historic presentations. The great scholar could watch these films and find complete "escape." He preferred this to spending time with people, whom he avoided.
He was entranced by the new sociology, despite his personal social discomfort, and was intrigued by the new Freudian psychology emerging upon the scene in his latter years. Not long before he died, Richard M. Stern (who prepared for the rabbinate under him) recalls Ehrlich saying if he could relive his years, he would like to give greater attention to psychology so as to understand why some human beings are driven perforce into defined areas of activity and why others are willing to remain "contented cows!!!"
Ehrlich was sought after by many non-Jews who wanted to study under him. Two of his well known Christian pupils were Dr. Charles Fagnani and Dr. Julius Bewer, both members of the Union Theological Seminary
Faculty. He was especially interested in Bewer because he exhibited an unusual aptitude in reading and understanding rabbinic literature. Ehrlich was unhappy that Christian scholarship had not cultivated the area with greater assiduity. He felt he found the perfect Christian disciple who would devote himself to rabbinics, but this did not happen. Bewer chose the field of biblical criticism in the tradition of Wellhausen and his coterie. Ehrlich had no love for this group and thoroughly disliked the "Higher Anti-Semitism."
A few years prior to 1917 he discovered that he had not been included in the committee appointed by the Jewish Publication Society and the Central Conference of American Rabbis
to prepare a new translation of the Hebrew Bible. When the work was published in 1917, he was furious that the committee used his name as a consultant.
Ehrlich was an occasional attendant at religious services and synagogues where he hoped to find preachers who could use the biblical text with the related midrashic or other rabbinic commentaries. He disliked the Union Prayer Book, primarily because he felt that its reform of the liturgy had not gone far enough. He felt that all the passages which belittled human dignity should be revised or eliminated. He believed that a modern Jewish prayer book should, of course, be rooted in traditional forms, but that prayers which involved a servile humility were unbecoming to modern man and should be rewritten.
Many of the older generation Rabbis studied under him at one time or another, either at Emanu-El or as private pupils. Among them were Samuel Schulman
, Leon Harrison, Bernard Drachman
, Stephen S. Wise, and George Alexander Kohut
whose father was Alexander Kohut
. Another of his mature students was Isaac S. Moses, rabbi of the Central Synagogue.
Ehrlich was married twice. He had a son by his first wife named Mark (who was born in Poland) and arrived in Manhattan, New York in 1885 without his mother.
His second wife Pauline (October 13, 1858-?) of Polish descent gave him a daughter named Olga born 1881. He had four grandchildren. Mark had Rose (1891), Joseph (1900) and Helen (1902) Ehrlich in Manhattan. Olga (who was born in Manhattan) married Dr. Julius Auerbach and had a son named Arnold (1912). Arnold M. Auerbach
became a contribution writer for The Carol Burnett Show
in the 1960s and was a distinguished playwright, essayist, humorist, critic, and an American Emmy-Award winning screen writer. His accomplishments are great.
Rose Ehrlich was an accomplished pianist who was written about in a lost book for her talent.
According to the January 10, 1920 Nation News Archive:
He also prepared textbooks to introduce students to rabbinic literature and prepared an anthology of aggadic passages representative of material that students might later have to study at the Emanu-El Theological School that he taught at.
His poetic German translation of the Psalms
had wide acclaim in its day, but this volume is now out of print and may be found only in large university libraries.
His scholarly work is written in German because, prior to World War I, German was regarded as the language of Jewish scholarship.
Unpublished notebooks can be found at the New York library of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. These notebooks are the addenda to the Randglossen.
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, and to have spoken 39 languages. He is best known for his book Mikra Kiphshuto (The Bible according to its Literal Meaning) in three Hebrew volumes published from 1899–1901, in which he sought to bring the results of modern textual criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
of the Bible to a wider Hebrew audience, emphasising the Torah to be a document made by humans complete with scribal and copying errors, not a perfect work dictated to Moses at Sinai; and as a formative intellectual influence on the young Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan , was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.-Life and work:...
. Ehrlich earned a living as a private tutor, and teaching at the Hebrew Preparatory School of the Temple Emanu-El Theological School of New York. However, he was never considered for a professorial post at Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
, apparently because in his early twenties he had helped the German Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Born in Leipzig, he held the professorship of theology at the University of Rostock from 1846 to 1850, at the University of Erlangen until 1867, and after that at the University of Leipzig until his death...
revise his Hebrew translation of the New Testament, a work used to proselytize
Proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix προσ- and the verb ἔρχομαι in the form of προσήλυτος...
Jewish converts to Christianity.
Life
Born Jewish in WlodawkaWlodawka
Włodawka is a Polish river passing by the town of Włodawa. It falls to the Bug River.Włodawka is 31 km long....
, Poland, Ehrlich was married at fourteen and had one son named Mark. At an early age he studied German in his native Polish Village, and had read the Bible in the Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...
translation. At seventeen, Ehrlich came to the conclusion that he could no longer abide the stringencies of his environment and he sought association with the wider fields of knowledge he hoped to find in Germany. His wife did not agree with the move or his liberal views, and her and their son did not go with him to Germany. He then went on his own and he entered school there to learn arithmetic, geography, and other elementary school subjects alongside boys of ten. Such subjects were simple for a lad who started learning the German language at five years old.
It was at this time in Germany that Ehrlich somehow came to the attention of Professor Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Born in Leipzig, he held the professorship of theology at the University of Rostock from 1846 to 1850, at the University of Erlangen until 1867, and after that at the University of Leipzig until his death...
, who engaged him as his amanuensis. This association would turn into an evil spectre later in his life because at Delitzsch's insistence Ehrlich revised the Hebrew translation of the New Testament (10th Edition) which was to be utilized for proselytization among Jews. During this time he encountered the work of Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen , was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, noted particularly for his contribution to scholarly understanding of the origin of the Pentateuch/Torah ....
, Kuehnen, and the whole school of Biblical criticism which fascinated him. This in turn made him accept the theory that the Bible was constructed of a patchwork quilt of documents, but his later work was a revolt against the destructiveness of the "higher criticism." The Hebrew language was bred into his bones, and it became his conviction that the Bible could be understood only as one devoted oneself to its language and to an understanding of the Hebrew idiom through its cognates. There are rumors that Ehrlich was baptized in Germany, but there is no proof or evidence of this. Had it been true, the officers at the Temple Emanu-El would never had considered him for a place as a teacher (not professor) in the Emanu-El Theological School of New York where he taught after he immigrated to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany in 1874. His Naturalization date is July 11, 1881, and he lists his occupation as "Teacher of Languages."
Ehrlich wrote and spoke in fluent English magnificently and spoke it fluently and flawlessly, though with a slight accent. He was a close student of many languages, and was both a philologist and a student of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. He knew 39 tongues, which included all the Semitic languages
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
, all the languages of Western Europe except Finnish, all the Slavic language dialects, as well as Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. He explained the relationship Israelite and Canaanite civilizations bear to that of the Greeks upon the basis of language similarities and idiomatic likeness. In his "leisure" he had written what was practically a Randglossen to both the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
. He was a lover of the Greek classics and had a great comprehension of classic civilizations. He had a special love for Arabic. He enjoyed it as a language, he enjoyed its literature and its poetry. Many of those who taught Arabic in the Semitics departments of universities came to Ehrlich for instruction, and among them was Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, son of Gustav Gottheil
Gustav Gottheil
Gustav Gottheil was a Prussian born American rabbi. Gottheil eventually became one of the most influential, well-known and controversial Reform Jewish leaders of his time...
who claims that he admitted to changing his faith to Christianity in Germany and was remorseful for it. This declaration was never signed by Ehrlich, but only by witnesses "claiming" this event took place in the late 19th century.
During his years in the United States, Jewish scholars and students sought him out, but Ehrlich surely paid a frightful price for that New Testament translation he did at a young age with Delitzsch. Many regard this translation as a beautiful piece of modern Hebrew composition, but it cost him and he was to pay for it throughout his life. He was sorely resentful of the fact that, despite general recognition of his status as a scholar, he had not been chosen Professor of Bible at the Hebrew Union College. He was never invited to teach in either of the major rabbinical seminaries and among the Orthodox he was disliked. No one wanted to appoint a man with such a background as engaging in a New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
translation, and who would invite criticism from all conservative quarters. He also insisted upon "mister" with his pupils because no university had ever granted him a higher academic degree.
He is the author of a biblical commentary called Mik'ra Kiph'shuto ("The Plain Meaning of the Bible"). It embodies his main point of view that the Bible itself is the best source for the knowledge of Hebrew as a language and for the ancient Hebraic ideas, even though the cross references of comparative passages or words might be separated in widely disparate ages. He felt that somehow original meanings persisted and that the cross references or parallel passages often shed light upon obscure sentences as well as upon mistakes in the original Bible text. Modern archaeology has opened new vistas through the centuries, and Ehrlich had no knowledge, in his time, of what the future would bring into this realm. It is amazing nevertheless that, depending solely upon language and upon his own intuitions, he arrived at explanations and interpretations which still have validity to this day.
He had a strong influence on the young Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan , was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.-Life and work:...
.
Ehrlich's strongest affection was for Louis Ginzberg
Louis Ginzberg
Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background:...
of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He admired Dr. Ginzberg's thoroughness, his vast and comprehensive knowledge, and the originality of his mind. He also had a high regard for Professors Malter and Margolis of the Dropsie College. But Ehrlich had no doubts as to his own status, for he was convinced of his own superiority in his chosen area of research, and his egotism was often very disturbing.
Ehrlich was antisocial in his life in that he felt uncomfortable and uneasy in ordinary human relationships. But he was completely social in his outlook, in his passion for justice, in his desire for the self-realization of all people regardless of race, color or creed. He was totally removed from people and came alive only when he discussed his philological interests.
He was an avid reader in all fields, particularly in philosophy, and maintained a steady correspondence with Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".-Life:...
until his death one year before Ehrlich. As a matter of self discipline, he required himself to read through Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
's Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kant's "first critique," it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgement...
every year.
Ehrlich's one diversion, strangely enough, was to attend the primitive movies of the early 20th century. He adored Westerns and historic presentations. The great scholar could watch these films and find complete "escape." He preferred this to spending time with people, whom he avoided.
He was entranced by the new sociology, despite his personal social discomfort, and was intrigued by the new Freudian psychology emerging upon the scene in his latter years. Not long before he died, Richard M. Stern (who prepared for the rabbinate under him) recalls Ehrlich saying if he could relive his years, he would like to give greater attention to psychology so as to understand why some human beings are driven perforce into defined areas of activity and why others are willing to remain "contented cows!!!"
Ehrlich was sought after by many non-Jews who wanted to study under him. Two of his well known Christian pupils were Dr. Charles Fagnani and Dr. Julius Bewer, both members of the Union Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
Faculty. He was especially interested in Bewer because he exhibited an unusual aptitude in reading and understanding rabbinic literature. Ehrlich was unhappy that Christian scholarship had not cultivated the area with greater assiduity. He felt he found the perfect Christian disciple who would devote himself to rabbinics, but this did not happen. Bewer chose the field of biblical criticism in the tradition of Wellhausen and his coterie. Ehrlich had no love for this group and thoroughly disliked the "Higher Anti-Semitism."
A few years prior to 1917 he discovered that he had not been included in the committee appointed by the Jewish Publication Society and the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Central Conference of American Rabbis
The Central Conference of American Rabbis , founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada, the CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world....
to prepare a new translation of the Hebrew Bible. When the work was published in 1917, he was furious that the committee used his name as a consultant.
Ehrlich was an occasional attendant at religious services and synagogues where he hoped to find preachers who could use the biblical text with the related midrashic or other rabbinic commentaries. He disliked the Union Prayer Book, primarily because he felt that its reform of the liturgy had not gone far enough. He felt that all the passages which belittled human dignity should be revised or eliminated. He believed that a modern Jewish prayer book should, of course, be rooted in traditional forms, but that prayers which involved a servile humility were unbecoming to modern man and should be rewritten.
Many of the older generation Rabbis studied under him at one time or another, either at Emanu-El or as private pupils. Among them were Samuel Schulman
Samuel Schulman
Samuel Schulman was a United States rabbi.-Biography:He came to America with his family in 1868, and attended the New York City public schools...
, Leon Harrison, Bernard Drachman
Bernard Drachman
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Drachman was a leader of Orthodox Judaism in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century....
, Stephen S. Wise, and George Alexander Kohut
George Alexander Kohut
George Alexander Kohut was an American writer and bibliographer; born in Stuhlweissenburg, Hungary. He was educated at the gymnasium in Grosswardein, at the public schools in New York, at Columbia University , Berlin University, and the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums...
whose father was Alexander Kohut
Alexander Kohut
Alexander Kohut was a rabbi and orientalist. He belonged to a family of rabbis, the most noted among them being Rabbi Israel Palota, his great-grandfather, Rabbi Amram , and Rabbi Chayyim Kitssee,...
. Another of his mature students was Isaac S. Moses, rabbi of the Central Synagogue.
Ehrlich was married twice. He had a son by his first wife named Mark (who was born in Poland) and arrived in Manhattan, New York in 1885 without his mother.
His second wife Pauline (October 13, 1858-?) of Polish descent gave him a daughter named Olga born 1881. He had four grandchildren. Mark had Rose (1891), Joseph (1900) and Helen (1902) Ehrlich in Manhattan. Olga (who was born in Manhattan) married Dr. Julius Auerbach and had a son named Arnold (1912). Arnold M. Auerbach
Arnold M. Auerbach
Arnold M. Auerbach was an American comedy writer, especially for radio, television and newspapers. Auerbach wrote radio and television scripts for Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, Fred Allen, Frank Sinatra and Phil Silvers, among others...
became a contribution writer for The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
in the 1960s and was a distinguished playwright, essayist, humorist, critic, and an American Emmy-Award winning screen writer. His accomplishments are great.
Rose Ehrlich was an accomplished pianist who was written about in a lost book for her talent.
According to the January 10, 1920 Nation News Archive:
The death of Arnold B. Ehrlich, which occurred in the city of New York a short time ago, has deprived the world of Biblical scholarship of one of its most brilliant exponents. Ehrlich was not officially connected with any institution of learning; his name is little known outside of the narrow circle of professional Bible students, and is possibly not sufficiently known even among them. Yet, his life work, represented by eleven substantial volumes dedicated to the elucidation of the Scriptures, merits the grateful appreciation of all those to whom the Bible is an integral part of human civilization.
Works
His best known works are, Mik'ra Kiph'shuto (מקרא כפשוטו) [The Bible Literally]. Leipzig: 3 vols, 1899–1901; reprinted New York: Ktav, 1969. Randglossen zur Hebräischen Bibel; textkritisches, sprachliches und sachliches [Notes on the Hebrew Bible]. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs. 7 vols, 1908–14; reprinted Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968. OCLC 1124545. His most substantial work, which took six years to complete and which was funded by Jacob H. Schiff and Dr. Isaac Adler.He also prepared textbooks to introduce students to rabbinic literature and prepared an anthology of aggadic passages representative of material that students might later have to study at the Emanu-El Theological School that he taught at.
His poetic German translation of the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
had wide acclaim in its day, but this volume is now out of print and may be found only in large university libraries.
His scholarly work is written in German because, prior to World War I, German was regarded as the language of Jewish scholarship.
Unpublished notebooks can be found at the New York library of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. These notebooks are the addenda to the Randglossen.
Further reading
- American Jewish Archives; vol. xxiii; no. 1; April, 1971
- The teshuva of Arnold Ehrlich on Ehrlich's apostasy and return to his faith.
- Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century on Mordecai KaplanMordecai KaplanMordecai Menahem Kaplan , was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.-Life and work:...
's relationship with Ehrlich. - "Ehrlich's Monumental Work on the Old Testament" review of Randglossen zur hebraischen Bibel, textkritisches, sprachliches und sachliches by Arnold B. Ehrlich. Review by Julius A. Bewer The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr., 1916), pp. 274–275 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1550-3283(191604)20%3A2%3C274%3AEMWOTO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
- "Some Hitherto Unrecognized Meanings of the Verb Shub" by Robert Gordis Journal of Biblical LiteratureJournal of Biblical LiteratureThe Journal of Biblical Literature is one of three theological journals published by the Society of Biblical Literature .First published in 1881, JBL is the flagship journal of the field...
, Vol. 52, No. 2/3 (Jun. - Sep., 1933), pp. 153–162 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9231(193306%2F09)52%3A2%2F3%3C153%3ASHUMOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U "The starting point for our inquiry is the acute observation of that master of Biblical Hebrew, Arnold B. Ehrlich."