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Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning

Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning or Dropsie University was a Jewish institution of higher learning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was America's first degree-granting institution for post-doctoral Jewish studies. Funded by the will of Moses Aaron Dropsie (1821–1905), it was chartered in 1907 and its first building was completed in 1912. It ceased to grant degrees in 1986.

History
Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning was founded in 1907. Its main benefactor was Moses Aaron Dropsie (1821–1905), a wealthy man whose father was Jewish and mother was Christian but who self-identified as Jewish from the age of 14. In 1905, Dropsie left his entire fortune for the establishment of a Jewish college along broad lines, offering instruction "in the Hebrew and cognate languages and their respective literatures, and in the rabbinical learning and literature." Estimated at $800,000, , the amount of this bequest was the largest sum that had been made available for the promotion of Jewish studies. The will named a Board of Governors consisting of Cyrus Adler, Mayer Sulzberger, William H. Hackenburg, Oscar S. Straus, and Aaron Friedenwald to organize the institution and secure its charter. After Friedenwald’s death, his son Harry Friedenwald was appointed to fill the vacancy. The College received its charter in 1907, and instruction commenced in 1909, with Cyrus Adler as president and Max L. Margolis and Henry Malter as its first professors. Dropsie College may have been designed by Lewis Pilcher or by Abraham Levy. It was built at Broad and York Streets. It was near the historic Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia's first Jewish congregation, then at 2321 N Broad Street. The first three presidents of Dropsie (Mayer Sulzberger, Cyrus Adler and Abraham A. Neuman) were worshipers there. Dropsie granted more than 200 Ph.D.s between its inception and its closing as a degree-granting institution in 1986. Dropsie was also the publisher of the Jewish Quarterly Review, which was at the time the most respected journal on the subject. The faculty at Dropsie included scholars from outside the United States, including Benzion Netanyahu, who came from Jerusalem with his young sons, Yonatan (Yoni) and Benjamin (Bibi), who there had their first true exposures to American culture, which would become a touchstone for later interactions with the American public for Bibi. ==Notable people==
Notable people
Dropsie studentsBarry J. Beitzel (1942–), American biblical and geographical scholar, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, and Bible translator. • Larry L. Walker (1932–2021), American biblical scholar, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, and Bible translator • Kenneth L. Barker (1931–), American biblical scholar, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, and Bible translator • William Sanford LaSor (1911-1991), American biblical scholar • Philip Birnbaum (1904–1988), Polish-American author and translator, best known for his translation of the siddurJoshua Bloch (1890–1957), Lithuanian-American rabbi and librarian • Raymond B. Dillard (1944–1993), American Old Testament scholar • Iris Habib Elmasry (1910–1994), Coptic historian and scholar • Simon Ginzburg (1890–1944), Hebrew poet, critic and historian. Obtained a PhD from Dropsie in 1923. Translated the letters of the Ramchal. • Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001), Near East scholar – did not graduate • R. Laird Harris (1911–2008), American Presbyterian minister and Old Testament scholar • Louis L. Kaplan (1902–2001), President of Baltimore Hebrew University 1930–1970, Acting Chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1976–1977 • Meredith G. Kline (1922–2007), American theologian and Old Testament scholar – Ph.D. in Assyriology and EgyptologySamuel Noah Kramer (1897–1990), Ukrainian-American Assyriologist and Sumeriologist – did not graduate; transferred to Penn • Albert L. Lewis (1917–2008), Congregational rabbi and professor of homiletics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of AmericaBenzion Netanyahu (1910–2012), Zionist, scholar of Jewish history, and father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuJames D. Price (1925–2025), American biblical scholar, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, and Bible translator • Frederic Clarke Putnam (1952-), American biblical scholar and linguist, Professor of Bible & Liberal Studies, Templeton Honors CollegeBernard Revel (1885–1940), future head of RIETS yeshiva and founder/President of Yeshiva College. 1911 doctoral thesis on Karaite Judaism • Ephraim Speiser (1902–1965) Near East scholar and archaeologist, excavator of Tepe GawraEdward J. Young (1907–1968), American Old Testament scholar and commentator • Terry L. Eves (1952–2019), American biblical theology scholar and Professor of Old Testament • Ronald F. Youngblood (1931–2014), American biblical scholar and Professor of Old Testament • Richard Averbeck, American biblical scholar and Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages Trinity Evangelical Divinity SchoolSimon Schwarzfuchs (1927-), French-Israeli rabbi and historian, Professor of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University. Dropsie facultyCyrus Adler, Jewish religious leader and scholar – president • William Chomsky, noted Hebrew scholar and father of Noam ChomskyBenzion Halper, Hebraist and Arabist • Benzion Netanyahu, historian of Jews in medieval Spain and father of Benjamin Netanyahu, Yonatan Netanyahu, and Iddo NetanyahuRaphael Patai, ethnographer and anthropologist – professor of anthropology, 1948–1957 • Stefan Reif, Jewish researcher – assistant professor of Hebrew, 1972–1973 • Solomon Zeitlin, historian of the second Jewish commonwealth and early Christianity. • Solomon Gandz, research professor of the history of Semitic Civilization • Bernard D. Weinryb, professor of Jewish history and economics, author of numerous works on European Jewish history ==Reformation ==
Reformation
By 1980, Dropsie College was near failing, its building in need of repairs and many of its books missing. On November 9, 1981, newly elected president David M. Goldenberg was notified of an arson attack, taking place on the forty-third anniversary of Kristallnacht. Attempts to put out the fire irreparably damaged the library and its contents, including rare books and ancient cuneiform tablets. Annenberg funded the construction of a new building, to which the institution moved in 1988. The new location was just three blocks south of the new location of congregation Mikveh Israel, as well as the National Museum of American Jewish History. The proposed goal of the new institution was to support dialogue among the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Its directors were Bernard Lewis (1986–1990), Eric M. Meyers (1991–1992), and as acting director, David M. Goldenberg (1992–1993). In 1993, the Annenberg Research Institute ceased to be an independent organization. It became part of the University of Pennsylvania, as the Center for Judaic Studies. In 1998, it was renamed the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and in 2008, the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. It is part of the Penn library system. ==Archives==
Archives
The institutional records and library collections of Dropsie College are now part of the collections of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania's library system. ==References==
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