Jastrow was born in Posen, Poland. After receiving rabbinical ordination, Ph.D., and Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt), he became the rabbi of Reform Temple Rodeph Shalom (while he was personally more theologically aligned with Conservative Judaism) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1866, at the age of thirty-seven. In 1886, he began publishing his magnum opus, A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature, in pamphlet form. It was finally completed and published in two-volume form in 1903, and has since become a popular resource for students of Talmud. In the preface to this work, Jastrow sharply criticized those linguistic and etymological scholars who claimed that obscure terms in Talmudic literature are primarily derived from Greek. Jastrow held that Greek influence on Talmudic Aramaic was minimal, and that most obscure terms could be much more simply be traced to Hebrew origins. Jastrow was also responsible for most Talmud-related articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
He was the father of Joseph Jastrow and Morris Jastrow, Jr.
Detailed Biography
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