Hoschander, Jacob
HOSCHANDER, JACOB
HOSCHANDER, JACOB (1874–1933), scholar. Hoschander was born in Teschen, Silesia (now Poland). He went to the U.S. in 1909 and in 1910 began teaching at Dropsie College in Philadelphia. He also lectured at the Jewish Theological Seminary on biblical archaeology and exegesis. From 1923 he taught biblical literature and exegesis at the Seminary. He influenced a generation of rabbis by his kindly and pious character and personality as well as by his scholarship. He was the pure cloistered scholar, completely absorbed in his studies.
For a number of years Hoschander wrote "Survey of Recent Biblical Literature" for the Jewish Quarterly Review. Some of the articles were reprinted separately. He wrote Die Personennamen auf dem Obelisk des Manistusu (1907); The Book of Esther in the Light of History (1923); and Priests and Prophets (1938). While he subscribed to the critical approach to the Bible, he was very conservative in his outlook and most critical of the Wellhausen School.
bibliography:
L. Finkelstein, in: Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, 5 (1933–38), 69–72.
[Isaac Klein]