Funk, Solomon

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FUNK, SOLOMON

FUNK, SOLOMON (1867–1928), rabbi and scholar. Funk was born in Hungary and served as rabbi at Sarajevo, Bosnia, Boskovice, Czechoslovakia, and in Vienna. Among his published works are Die haggadischen Elemente in den Homelien des persischen Weisen Aphraates (1891); Die Juden in Babylonien200–500 (2 vols., 1902–08); Grundprinzip des biblischen Strafrechts … (1904), a comparative discussion of the Bible and the Hammurapi Code; Entstehung des Talmuds (19192); and Talmudproben (19212). The last two small but well-presented volumes, which appeared as volumes 479 and 583 in the popular Goeschen series, did much to convey a balanced view of the world of the Talmud to non-Jewish readers. Other publications of Funk were Die Hygiene des Talmuds (1912); "Bibel und Babel" (in Monumenta Talmudica, 1913); and a pro-Zionist tract, Der Kampf um Zion … (1921).

bibliography:

S. Krauss, in: Die Wahrheit (Dec. 11, 1925), 7; Wiener Morgen-Zeitung (Dec. 12, 1925); jjlg, 20 (1929), 7; Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 1 (1946), 279.

[Naphtali Ben-Menahem]