Barkai - Shiryon Vakesheth. ‘Defense by M.L. Rodkinson from his Enemies - Chiefly Joseph Samuel Bloch’ (Polemic).

RODKINSON, MICHAEL LEVI (FRUMKIN).

Pressberg, Levy & Alkalai

Vienna

1886

Text in Hebrew. Additional title in German.

Michael Levi Rodkinson (formerly Frumkin, 1845-1904), was a publisher best known for being the first to translate (badly) the Babylonian Talmud into English. The grandson of the Chassidic Rabbi Aharon of Staroselye, Rodkinson also pioneered the literary genre of Hassidic legends. Yoseph Shmuel Bloch (1850-1923) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar, who campaigned mightily against local anti-Semitism. The two shared an acrimonious relationship: Bloch viewing Rodkinson’s academic writings as faulty, and Rodkinson was frustrated by Bloch’s refusal to contribute to his journals. For more on their rivalry, see Bloch’s Zichronot Mimei Chayay (Tel-Aviv, 1933) Vol. I, p. 113.