Shalom Spiegel

Shalom Spiegel (26 January 1899 – 24 May 1984) was the William Prager Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1944 until his retirement in 1973. He is considered one of the greatest scholars of Judaica of his generation and a leading expert in medieval Hebrew literature.

His research concentrated on biblical and medieval Jewish literature, especially the prophets Hosea, Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Job. He extensively researched liturgical poetry (piyyut in Hebrew) and devoted more than fifty years of research creating a definitive edition of the liturgical compositions of Eleazar Kallir. as well as the religious poetry of Kallir's predecessors and contemporaries. He collected material until his death, but never published it. In 1996 Menahem Schmelzer published a volume entitled Avot hapiyyut (The fathers of the piyyut) from the materials found in Spiegel's literary estate.

He was famous for his erudition and thoroughness as well as his beautiful writing style in Hebrew and in English. Largely due to Truman’s urging, the talk was published the following year as a small pamphlet entitled Amos versus Amaziah.

Spiegel served as chairman of the educational advisory committee to Hadassah, as secretary of the Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation, and as a trustee of the Israel Matz Foundation. He was active in the Mekize Nirdamim Society, founded in 1862.

Spiegel was an avid writer and corresponded with the leading scholars and Jewish intellectuals of the day as well as with many of his former students and colleagues in Israel and New York City. Spiegel was also an acclaimed speaker and schools, synagogues, and congregations across the United States invited him to lecture at their institutions. Some correspondents of note include Alexander Marx, Gershom Scholem, Ben Zion Bokser, Moshe Davis, Louis Finkelstein, Louis Ginzberg, S.D. Goitein, Judah Goldin, Abraham Joshua Heshel, Saul Lieberman, Stephen S. Wise, Henrietta Szold, Israel Davidson, Mordecai M. Kaplan, E. E. Urbach, and Menahem Zulay.

Awards and memberships Dr. Spiegel received an honorary doctorate from JTS in 1973.

He was a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research

In 1983 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Spiegel was a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Oriental Society, and an honorary member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

Archives The Shalom Spiegel collection is located in an archive at JTS and consists of correspondence, handwritten notes, institutional records, copies of lectures, typescripts with notes, manuscripts. It is divided into six series and the following main subjects:

Wise, Stephen Samuel (Person) Mekize Nirdamim Society (Organization) Goitein, Shelomo Dov (1900-1985) (Correspondent, Person) Bialik, Hayyim Nahman (Correspondent, Person) Marx, Alexander (Person) Baron, Salo Wittmayer (Correspondent, Person) Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation (Organization) Truman, Harry S. (1884-1972) (Person) Scholem, Gershom (Person) Kohut, Alexande