Alexander Altmann ז״ל | Brandeis University (original) (raw)

Alexander Altmann ז״ל

Alexander Altmann ז”ל was born in 1906 and received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Berlin in 1931, writing his dissertation on the philosophy of Max Scheler, and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by the Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin in the same year. From 1931 to 1938 he served as rabbi in Berlin and professor of Jewish philosophy at the Seminary. After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938, Altmann served as communal rabbi in Manchester, England from 1938 to 1959. While in Manchester, his scholarly activities ultimately led him to found and direct the Institute of Jewish Studies from 1953 to 1958.

In 1959, he left England to join the faculty of Brandeis University. He served at Brandeis as the Philip W. Lown Professor of Jewish Philosophy and History of Ideas beginning in 1959 and until his promotion to Professor Emeritus and subsequent retirement in 1976. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1967. From 1976 to 1978 he was a visiting professor at Harvard University and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and from 1978 until his death he was an Associate at the Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies.

Professor Altmann passed away in Boston on June 6, 1987, and he was buried in Israel.

[this page is curated by Mr. Menachem Butler, with the support of the Altmann family.]

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