Louis Harry Feldman (born 29
October 1926 in Hartford, Connecticut
) is a United States professor of classics and literature. He is Abraham Wouk
Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva
University
, the institution at which he has taught since
1956. Feldman is renowned as a scholar of
Hellenistic civilization,
specifically the works of
Josephus
Flavius.
Biography
Feldman
received his undergraduate degree from Trinity College,
Hartford, CT
in 1946 and his master’s degree the following
year. In 1951, he received his doctoral degree in
philology from Harvard
University
for his dissertation Cicero’s Concept of Historiography. He
returned to Trinity College as a teaching fellow and eventually
served as classics instructor before leaving for
Hobart and William Smith
Colleges in 1953. Feldman began teaching at Yeshiva University
as an assistant professor in 1956, before becoming an associate
professor in 1961 and, in 1966, a professor of classics. In 1993,
he was appointed Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and
Literature at Yeshiva University.
A fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, he has
received numerous other fellowships and awards. These include a
Ford Foundation Fellowship
(1951-1952), a
Guggenheim
Fellowship (1963), a grant from the Memorial Foundation for
Jewish Culture (1969), and a grant from the
American Philosophical
Association (1972).
He was named a senior fellow of the American Council of
Learned Societies in 1971, a Littauer Foundation fellow in
1973, and Institute for Advanced Study
fellow in 1994. In 1981, he received the
American Philological
Association award for “Excellence in Teaching the Classics.”
Additionally, Feldman has been selected to conduct seminars for
college teachers by the
National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Thought and writings
As a historian, Feldman has dealt primarily with the writings of
Josephus and their role within the larger framework of Jewish
civilization during the
Second
Temple Period. His works on Josephus have ranged from
discussions of historical accuracy to analysis of Josephus’
biblical interpretations. Overall, Feldman views Josephus’ work as
key to understanding Jewish life and interactions with Hellenistic
culture during the
Greco-Roman era. In
addition to his work on Josephus, Feldman has published numerous
works on the writings of
Philo as well as
works dealing directly with the nature of Jewish life during
antiquity.
Feldman’s works include
Scholarship on Philo and Josephus,
1937-1962 (1963),
Josephus and Modern Scholarship,
1937-1980 (1984),
Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World:
Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian (1993),
Studies in Hellenistic Judaism (1998), and
Josephus’
Interpretation of the Bible (1998). Feldman also translated
several volumes of the critical addition of
Jewish Antiquities. Feldman has
contributed extensively to journals in his field, having published
approximately 150 scholarly articles. He also served as
departmental editor of Hellenistic literature for the first edition
of
Encyclopedia Judaica and as
a contributor to the
Encyclopædia Britannica.
See also
References
Encyclopedia Judaica Second Edition, Volume 6
Curriculum Vitae
[720486]
List of Scholarly Articles
[720487]
Wikis
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