Renowned scholar Jacob Neusner dies at 84

Professor Jacob Neusner, renowned Jewish scholar and author, has passed away at the age of 84, after a long illness.

Neusner was one of the most prolific writers in history, author of almost 1,000 books and countless articles, op-eds and other writings. He had a deep influence on the study of traditional Jewish texts and courted controversy in almost everything he did.

Neusner was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and had no formal Jewish education until his teenage years, when he first learned to read Hebrew. He was first inspired to begin studying Jewish texts at Harvard after meeting and studying under Professor Harry Austryn Wolfson. He went from Harvard to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he studied under Rabbi Shaul Liberman and was first introduced to the Talmud.

“I was not intellectually challenged until I met the Talmud, in October 1954,” Neusner said according to a New York Times report.

His funeral will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Blithewood Manor on the campus of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.