The son of a butcher,
he was born in Xions, Poznan, Germany (now in Poland) and spent his
early years there, in Zerkow, and in Wolstein (Wolsztyn). He
received his doctorate from the University of Jena, Germany, and
intended to become a rabbi but his lack of public speaking skills
turned him to teaching - from 1845-48 he was principal of the
Orthodox school of the Breslau community (now Wroclaw, in Poland)
and from 1850-52 taught at Lundenberg (Breclav). Graetz was then
appointed to teach history at the recently founded Jewish
Theological Seminary in Breslau. His classic History of the Jews won
him an international reputation and in 1869 the University of
Breslau made him honorary professor. His History, both in its
original eleven volumes and in the three-volume abridgement, became
the most important work of its kind in the 19th century and is still
widely read as a basic work of Jewish scholarship.
Bibliography:
GRAETZ, Heinrich. Geschichte der
Juden vom Abschluss des Talmud (500) bis zum Aufbluehen der
juedisch-spanischen Cultur (1027). Pp. 564. Magdeburg: A.
Falckenberg, 1860
GRAETZ, Heinrich. Sinai et Golgotha,
ou Les origines du judaisme et du christianisme, suivi d'un examen
critique des evangiles anciens et modernes, par H. Graetz ... tr. et mis en ordre par Maurice Hess. Pp.
vii, 420. Paris: Michel Levy freres, 1867
GRAETZ, Heinrich. History of the Jews.
Vols. 6. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America 1891-98
GRAETZ, Heinrich. ha-Historyah shel ha-`am ha-Yehudi. `Ivrit Shalom Etinger;
ba-`arikhat Emanu'el Katz. Tel Aviv: Hotsa'at `Ayin, [1953- ]
GRAETZ, Heinrich. The structure of
Jewish history, and other essays. Translated, edited, and
introduced by Ismar Schorsch. Pp. x, 325. New York: Jewish
Theological Seminary of America: distributed by Ktav Pub. House,
1975
GRAETZ, Heinrich. Popular history of
the Jews. Translated by Rabbi A. B. Rhine, D. D. with a
supplementary volume of recent events, by Dr. Max Raisin. Edited by
Alexander Harkavy. Vols. 6. New York: Hebrew publishing company,
1919.
GRAETZ, Heinrich. Divre yeme
Yi´sra'el: meha-`et ha-yoter kedumah `ad ha-hoveh. Vols. 4.
Varshah [Warsaw]: "Ahisefer", 1930-
SCHMERLER, Elias. Hayye Grez.
Pp.xvii 2 l., 15-160. New York: Bloch publishing co., 1921.
