| AdminHistory | Born Dalston, London, youngest son of of Joseph Roth, manufacturer of builders' supplies, and his wife, Etty, ne Jacobs, 1899; educated at the City of London School, he also had a traditional religious education and learned Hebrew from the Cairo genizah scholar Jacob Mann; military service, 1917-1919; read modern history at Merton College, Oxford, 1919-1924; BLitt, 1923; DPhil, 1924; became a specialist in Italian and later, Jewish history; Fellow, Royal Historical Society, 1925; married Irene Rosalind, daughter of David Davis, property developer, 1928; no children; supported himself by freelance writing until 1939; Leverhulme Research Fellow, 1935-1936; President, Jewish Historical Society of England, 1936-1945 and 1955-1956; elected a member of Italian learned societies before 1939, he resigned his membership as a protest against Mussolini's anti-Jewish legislation; Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford, where he was also mentor and host to Jewish students, 1939-1964; Visiting Lecturer in History, Jews' College, London, 1939-1948; Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, 1941; Visiting Professor, Columbia University, New York, 1958; Editor, Standard Jewish Encyclopaedia, 1959; settled in Israel, 1964; Visiting Professor, Bar Ilan University, 1964-1965; reelected a corresponding member of the Accademia Colombaria of Florence, 1965; Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1965-1970; Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for services to Italian culture, 1969; divided his last years between New York, where he was visiting professor at Queens' College, 1966-1969, City University and Stern College, and Jerusalem; he was an avid collector, particularly of illuminated ketubot (marriage contracts), silver ritual objects, rare printed books, and manuscripts; died 1970. Publications include: 'The Last Florentine Republic' (1925); 'The History of the Marranos' (1932); 'The Short History of the Jewish People' (1936); 'Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica' (1937); 'The Jewish Contribution to Civilization' (1938); 'Beaconsfield Press Haggadah', illustrated by Artur Szyk (1939); 'History of the Jews in England' (1941); 'History of the Jews in Italy' (1946); 'Intellectual Activities of Medieval Anglo-Jewry' (1949); 'Rise of Provincial Jewry' (1950); 'Personalities and Events in Jewish History (1953); 'The Historical Background of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1958); 'The Jews in the Renaissance' (1959); 'Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History' (1962); 'The Dead Sea Scrolls: a New Historical Approach' (1965); 'Gleanings: Essays in Jewish History, Letters and Art' (1967); and contributions to the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', 'Encyclopaedia Judaica', and 'Cambridge Medieval History'. Bibliographies of his writings appeared in 'Remember the Days' (1966) and in 'Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society' 25 (1977). |