| The first intellectual biography of the life of Ellis Rivkin---written from personal interviews, correspondence with colleagues, information gathered during several visits to his birthplace, the schools in which he studied, and the colleges in which he taught---is followed by an annotated bibliography of his complete works. The biography benefits from four decades of friendship and diaristic notes of conversations I have had and meetings I have attended with him during those years. The first complete, systematic and annotated bibliography of his work is both descriptive and evaluative, but faithful to his purposes and positions. It is preceded by a foreword, then a running catalogue, and is followed by a topical index with summary introductions.; Ellis Rivkin was born in Baltimore on Rosh Hashanah, 1918. He was raised by a pious family of modest means in a succession of rented homes. Before and during his days in public school his parents provided for tutors in Hebraica. An excellent student, he quickly advanced in his studies and gained a reputation for religious precocity. Graduated from high school at 16 and without the resources for freshman tuition he enrolled at the Baltimore Hebrew College (BHC). He was influenced there by Harry Orlinsky, whose introduction to the dialectico-critical method of historical reconstruction led to his questioning the authority and immutability of the Law.; In 1939, Rivkin entered Johns Hopkins University and took examinations for and was awarded a full merit scholarship the next year. Intending, at first, to major in Semitics, he was so impressed by Frederick Lane's survey in Western civilization that he transferred to history. From Lane he learned the importance of economic causality and the supremacy of primary sources. The intellectual emancipation triggered at the BHC found its mark at Johns Hopkins.; After earning his Ph.D. in Renaissance and Baroque History, Rivkin was granted a post-doctoral fellowship at Dropsie College of Judaica and Cognate Studies in Philadelphia and took his first position teaching Jewish history at Gratz College. At Dropsie, he counseled with the eminent intertestamentalist Solomon Zeitlin, with whose work he was already familiar, and by whose analytical techniques he was impressed. Yet, despite Zeitlin's advice to the contrary, Rivkin chose not to specialize in Renaissance Responsa, but to specialize in the entire course of Jewish history.; Invited in 1949 to fill a post at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Rivkin concentrated on the promulgation of a theory to explain the dynamics of historical change and their organizing matrix. As evidenced in the annotated bibliography, his Pentateuchal hypothesis, Pharisaic examination and its implications for early Christianity, exposure of the Marrano myth, sociology of developmental capitalism, philosophy of Judaism, Unity Principle, and structural methodology have radically reshaped the contours of Jewish historiography. His propositions are precise, his corollaries are consistent and his conclusions remain persuasive. |
