Schechter, Abraham Israel

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SCHECHTER, ABRAHAM ISRAEL

SCHECHTER, ABRAHAM ISRAEL (1894–1936), rabbi and scholar. Schechter, who was born in Vizhnitsa, Bukovina, worked as a librarian in Switzerland, and then emigrated to the U.S. in 1922. From 1924 he taught at the Hebrew Theological College, Chicago, and later served as rabbi in Houston, Texas, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Among his published works are Palaestina, seine Geschichte und Kultur (1905, which had to be withdrawn after a court order for plagiarism); Studies in Jewish Liturgy, on the Ḥibbur Berakhot by Menahem b. Solomon (1930) which drew criticism from I. Davidson (jqr, 21, 1930–31), 241–79; Schechter's rejoinder, in: jqr, 22 (1931–32), 147–52); and Lectures on Jewish Liturgy (1933). Schechter's collection of Hebraica and Judaica was given to Texas University Library.

His wife eva wrote Symbols and Ceremonies of the Jewish Home (1930).

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Schechter, Abraham Israel

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