In March 2017, we lost a great scholar: Louis H. Feldman, the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University. Professor Feldman was recognized around the world as the “dean” of Josephus scholars, and he contributed greatly to our understanding of Jewish life during the Hellenistic era. He published numerous books and hundreds of articles—243 are listed in RAMBI, the Index of Articles on Jewish Studies. He was a “scholar’s scholar”—a model of dedication to craft coupled with modesty and wide-ranging learning.
Feldman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, where he would also stay and earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at Trinity College. He then continued his education at Harvard University, where he received a doctorate in classical philology (the study of Greek and Latin languages and literatures) in 1951. Feldman returned briefly to Trinity College to teach for a couple of years before moving to New York, where he taught first at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and then at Yeshiva University. In 1956, he accepted an assistant professorship at Yeshiva University, where he would teach for some 60 years, eventually becoming the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature.
Throughout his long career, Feldman received numerous fellowships, grants and awards, and he published copiously. His best-known works include Josephus and Modern Scholarship, 1937–1980 (1984) and Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian (1993). He also served as an editor on various publications, such as the Encyclopedia Judaica’s first edition.
We extend heartfelt condolences to Professor Feldman’s family and to his students around the world .—Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University
“Louis Feldman” by Matt Yaniv of Yeshiva University is licensed under CC-by-SA-3.0
In March 2017, we lost a great scholar: Louis H. Feldman, the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University. Professor Feldman was recognized around the world as the “dean” of Josephus scholars, and he contributed greatly to our understanding of Jewish life during the Hellenistic era. He published numerous books and hundreds of articles—243 are listed in RAMBI, the Index of Articles on Jewish Studies. He was a “scholar’s scholar”—a model of dedication to craft coupled with modesty and wide-ranging learning. Feldman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, where he would also stay and earn both […]
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
