GEIGER, ABRAHAM ( 1810-74). A dis tinguished rabbi and Jewish scholar. He was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and was educat ed at Heidelberg and Bonn. At Bonn he gained a prize for an essay on the Jewish sources of the Koran, published (1833) under the title lVas hat Mohammed aus dem Judentum aufgenomen? (reprint of Eng. trans., Madras, 1898), which is still of considerable value. In 1832 lie be came rabbi in Wiesbaden, and in 1835 one of the editors of the Zeitschrift fiir judische Theologie. In 1838 he was chosen associate rabbi at Breslau; in 1863 he removed to Frankfort, where he was rabbi until 1870, and was then elected to the charge of the largest Jewish con gregation in Germany—namely, at Berlin—and remained there till his death, in 1874. In 1862 he founded the Jiidische Zeitschrift fur TVissenschaft and Leben. Geiger's work was mainly in theological lines, and he was one of the foremost advocates of the 'reform' of Juda ism, standing for liberality in the construction and observance of the Jewish traditional law. In line with this work he published a new Hebrew ritual, and became professor in the llochschule fair die Wissenschaft des Judenthums,' a school to train Jewish rabbis according to the modern interpretation of Judaism, which he had helped to found. Endowed with an unusually active
mind, he worked untiringly, and of his extreme ly numerous works on Jewish history, literature, and theology, only a few can be mentioned here: Lehr- and Lesebuch zur Sprache. der Mischna (1845) ; Beitrlige zur jitclischen Litteratur ge schichte (1847) ; Diwan des Castilicrs Abuq Hassan Jude very impor tant works; Urschrift and Uebersetzungcn der Bibcl in ihrcr Ablaingigkcit von der innern Ent wickclung des Juden turns (1857) ; and Sad duziier and l'harisiier (1863) ; a collection of lectures published under the title Das Judentum and seine Geschichtc ; and Salorno Gabirol and seine Dichtungen (1868). His posthumous works, 2 V achgclassen e Schrif I en, were published by his son Ludwig; the last volume of this collection contains his biography and letters. The most important of his works is the Urschrift, an exceedingly valuable con tribution to the history of Old Testament litera ture.