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Joseph Perles was born in Baja, Hungary, in 1835. He was born into a long line of rabbis and talmudic scholars. His ancestors include the famous talmudist and mathematician Judah Loew ben Bezaleel (d. 1609 in Prague) and Asher ben Jehiel, or Asheri, (1250-1327), an outstanding legal codifier and talmudist. Joseph’s own father, Baruch Asher Perles, was won over in his studies by the simple interpretation of the Bible, the “peshat.” As rabbi of Baja, he appreciated both talmudic teaching and more secular culture. He read German books and periodicals, and sent Joseph to the local grammar school for part of his education. When the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (now Wrocaw, Poland) opened, he had Joseph enrolled as its first student. The Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau was founded by Rabbi Zecherias Frankel (1801-1875) after his break away from the Reform Judaism movement. The seminary was founded in 1854 with the premise that Jewish law was not static, but needed to be flexible and adaptable to cultural changes as, Rabbi Frankel argued, it was historically. Both Baruch and his son Joseph were supporters of Frankel’s movement, which became what we now know as Conservative Judaism. In addition to studying at the seminary, Joseph Perles also took courses at the University of Breslau. He graduated from the university in Oriental Philology and Philosophy, receiving a Ph.D. in 1859. His dissertation, “ Meletemata Peschitthoniana,” was a treatise on the Syriac version of the Bible. Studying and writing about ancient versions of the Bible became one of his specialties. His work in medieval literature was also extensive.

Joseph Perles’s main scholarly contribution was to Hebrew and Aramaic lexicography, philology. Works include Zur rabbinischen Sprach-und Sagenkunde (1873), where Joseph Perles looks at Hebrew origins and Hebrew philology in the “ Arabian Nights ” tales, Die Juedische Hochzeit in Nachbiblischer Zeit, (1860), where he studies Jewish marriage customs in biblical times, and Die Leichenfeierlichkeiten im nachbiblischen Judentum, (1861), in which he studies mourning and funerary customs of Jews in biblical times. He also wrote Beitrage zur Geschichte der Hebraeischen und Aramaeischen Studien (1884). This is only a sampling of his work. Topics cover biblical history, German-Jewish history, philology and linguistics.

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