Moses Avigdor Shulvass

Moses (Mosheh) Avigdor Shulvass (Szulwas) (1909–1988) was an American rabbi and historian of Jewish history.

Life Born in Poland, he became a rabbi in Warsaw in 1930 and received his PhD from University of Berlin in 1934. He relocated to pre-state Israel, then in 1947 Baltimore, later Chicago, and later Los Angeles. He was a professor at Spertus College from 1951 until 1971 and authored 12 books. He became a distinguished professor and the chairman of the graduate studies department. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research. He specialized in Italian Jewish history particularly the Italian Renaissance period. Shulvass became an influential historian and his books were widely read. Jacob Burckhardt was an influence on Shulvass' work per Daniel Jütte.

Robert Bonfil, according to David B. Ruderman, considers Shulvass alongside Heinrich Graetz, Cecil Roth, and Isaac Barzilay as secularly oriented historians of the Renaissance that identified it with enlightenment and cosmopolitan progress, while taking a critical perspective of traditional Ashkenazic culture.

Publications

"Medieval Ashkenazic Jewry's Knowledge of History and Historical Literature." The Solomon Goldman Lectures IV (1985): 1-27.