HERZOG, DAVID

HERZOG, DAVID (1869–1946), Austrian rabbi and scholar. Herzog was born in Tyrnau (Trnava) and studied in Vienna. In 1900 he was appointed rabbi in Smichov, a suburb of Prague. Later, as rabbi of Graz, Austria, he also taught Semitic languages at the University of Graz. In 1938 the Nazis raided his home and threw him into the Mur River. He was rescued and escaped to Oxford, England. His scholarly interests were two-fold: medieval Jewish Literature, especially Judeo-Arabic writings, and the history of the Jews in Austria, especially in Steiermark. In the first field he published Die Abhandlung des Abu Bekr ibn Al-Saig "Vom Verhalten des Einsiedlers," nach Mose Narbonis Auszug (1896); Maimonides Commentar zum Tractat Peah (1899), the text in the original Arabic with an introduction and notes; and Joseph b. Eliezer Bonfils' supercommentary to Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary to the Pentateuch (Josef Bonfils und sein "Tzofnat Paaneach," 2 vols., 1911–30, repr. 1966–67). In Jewish history he published, under the influence of J.E. Scherer, a number of important articles and studies. His works are based on archival material and other primary sources, such as tombstone inscriptions. Herzog wrote Urkunden und Registen zur Geschichte der Juden in der Steiermark (1935), and "Die juedischen Friedhoefe in Graz" (in Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden in der Steiermark, vol. 2, 1937). Some of Herzog's sermons also appeared in print.

bibliography:

G. Kisch, in: Historia Judaica, 8 (1946), 105–6.