Legends of the Jews

Louis Ginzberg

1909

Volume 2, Chapter I. Joseph

Joseph and Zuleika [ . . . ]

The wife of Potiphar would frequently speak to her husband in praise of Joseph’s chastity in order that he might conceive no suspicion of the state of her feelings. And, again, she would encourage Joseph secretly, telling him not to fear her husband, that he was convinced of his purity of…
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Painting of bearded man in glasses and hat seated at table with cigarette in one hand and Yiddish newspaper in the other.
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Jewish Intellectual Inquiry at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

1880–1918

Jewish scholars combined empirical social science with philosophical inquiry, while others explored Jewish history, folklore, and identity to address the challenges of modernity and antisemitism.

Creator Bio

Louis Ginzberg

1873–1953

Born in Kovno (today, Kaunas), Lithuania, the rabbinics scholar Louis Ginzberg studied Talmud at the yeshivas of Kovno and Telz, and history, philosophy, and Near Eastern languages at Berlin, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. He immigrated to the United States in 1899 and found work as the rabbinics editor at the Jewish Encyclopedia in 1900. From 1903 until his death, he taught Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he influenced two generations of rabbis and shaped the development of the Conservative movement, not only through his teaching but also through his responsa. His best-known work is his seven-volume Legends of the Jews (1909–1938), a compendium of stories, anecdotes, and tales from midrashic texts that he forged into a continuous narrative of ancient Israel’s history from the patriarchs to Queen Esther. He was a founder of the American Academy for Jewish Research and served as its president.

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