Abraham Elijah Harkavy. HaYehudim veSafat HaSlavim, Madrishot veChakirot beKorot Bnei Yisrael Be’Eretz Russia.

(RUSSIA).

Joseph Reuben Romm

Vilna

1867

Friedberg, Yud 313.

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia took special notice of this work: “Harkavy's aim here was to prove that the first Jews who settled in South Russia did not come from Germany, as was supposed by Grätz and other historians, but from Greece through the Black Sea region and the Crimea, and from the Orient by way of the Caucasus. He furthermore showed that Slavonic was the language spoken by the Jews in the Slavonic countries until the arrival of German Jews in great numbers during the Crusades. He proved that the Jewish writers in Russia and other Slavonic countries used Slavonic words and phrases in their Biblical and Talmudic commentaries.” His argument was later refuted by Simon Dubnow. Abraham (Albert) Harkavy (1839-1919) was an esteemed Russian Orientalist, scholar of Jewish history and literature, and leader of the Jewish community in St. Petersburg. He is perhaps most well-known for demonstrating that the Karaite documents that Avraham Firkovich had used to demonstrate that Russian Karaites had arrived in Crimea during that 6th century BCE (and therefore took no part in the killing of Jesus) were, in fact, forgeries.