1850-1915
Scholar and President of the Jewish Theological Seminary

Humble Beginnings.

Solomon Schechter was born in or about 1850 in the village of Fokshan (Focsani), Romania. His father was a ritual slaughterer, and the family adhered to the Hasidic sect of Judaism that Schechter would come to disavow as a young scholar. From his early years Schechter, who would become a giant among scholars of Judaism, was recognized as an Buy, the Hebrew word for a wonder child of learning. His early education, administered by his father, centered on religious texts. At the age of ten Schechter attended a Talmudic college in Piatra, Romania. By sixteen he was in the rabbinical school at Lemberg, where he studied with Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson, the great scholar of the Talmud. Schechter returned to Fokshan and remained until 1875. His parents had arranged a marriage, as was the custom, but the...