Chimen Abramsky Explained

Chimen Abramsky
Native Name:Hebrew: שמעון אברמסקי
Native Name Lang:he
Birth Date:12 September 1916
Birth Place:Minsk, Russian Empire
Spouse:Miriam Nirenstein
Children:2, including Jenny Abramsky
Parents:Yehezkel Abramsky (father)
Workplaces:University College London

Chimen Abramsky (Hebrew: שמעון אברמסקי; 12 September 1916 – 14 March 2010) was emeritus professor of Jewish studies at University College London.[1] [2] His first name is pronounced Shimon.[3]

Biography

Abramsky was born in Minsk to a Lithuanian Jewish family on 12 September 1916, the son of Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky.[4] [5] He gained a BA degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA from the University of Oxford. He was Reader in Jewish History, then Goldsmid Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. He was a Senior Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford. A noted scholar of Jewish History, Abramsky was also well known as an expert on antiquarian Hebrew books and manuscripts, and was professionally consulted for many years by the auction house Sotheby's, which traditionally ran one Hebraica and Judaica auction every year.[1] [6]

His father arrived in London in December 1931 after being expelled from the Soviet Union. The next year Chimen arrived with his mother and younger brother.[7] Three years later, in 1935, he travelled to Palestine to study history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem but became involved in socialist campus politics. On one occasion he was beaten up by future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir – then a leading figure in the rightwing Irgun.[1] Abramsky was described as an atheist.

Visiting London in the summer of 1939 to see his parents Abramsky was unable to return to Palestine because of World War 2. Instead he started working at Shapiro, Vallentine & Co., London's oldest Jewish bookshop and publisher of Jewish scholarly books, where he met Miriam Nirenstein, the proprietor's daughter. They married in 1940 and had two children, Jack and Jenny. Jack, a mathematician, is the father of Sasha Abramsky.[8] Jenny became of the BBC's longest-serving senior executives.[9] [10] Abramsky was the uncle by marriage of the socialist historian Raphael Samuel. The house Chimen and Miriam shared in Highgate, Northern London,[11] was considered an important destination for thinkers and scholars.

In 1966, he was invited to take up a newly created lectureship in modern Jewish history at University College London.

In a well-known incident, Abramsky once hosted the Japanese prince and Hebrew scholar Prince Takahito Mikasa at the University College London's Institute of Jewish Studies in 1975.[12]

Abramsky died on 14 March 2010.

Further reading

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Rapoport-Albert . Ada . Ada Rapoport-Albert . 18 March 2010 . Chimen Abramsky obituary . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20130909143224/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/18/chimen-abramsky-obituary . 9 September 2013 . 19 March 2010 . The Guardian.
  2. News: 18 May 2010 . Professor Chimen Abramsky . subscription . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20221010164552/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7737796/Professor-Chimen-Abramsky.html . 10 October 2022 . 13 August 2020 . The Daily Telegraph.
  3. Web site: Dreier . Peter . Peter Dreier . June 20, 2014 . The Leftwing Bibliophile: The Extraordinary Chimen Abramsky . February 13, 2024 . Jewish Currents.
  4. News: Abramsky . Sasha . Sasha Abramsky . August 27, 2015 . How the Atheist Son of a Jewish Rabbi Created One of the Greatest Libraries of Socialist Literature . subscription . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240115014059/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-the-atheist-son-of-a-jewish-rabbi-created-one-of-the-greatest-libraries-of-socialist-literature/ . January 15, 2024 . August 13, 2020 . . . Adapted from The House of Twenty Thousand Books..
  5. Web site: Chimen Abramsky Archive . Series 1: Personal Documents and Family Correspondence item NNL_ARCHIVE_AL990048958690205171 . 13 February 2024 . National Library of Israel.
  6. News: 19 March 2010 . Professor Chimen Abramsky: historian . subscription . live . https://archive.today/20221211232850/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-chimen-abramsky-historian-5z86hp2lrpq . 11 Dec 2022 . 19 March 2010 . The Times.
  7. Book: Abramsky, Sasha . The house of twenty thousand books . Halban . 2014 . 978-1-905559-64-0 . London . 22 . Sasha Abramsky . Internet Archive.
  8. Web site: Nagler Miller . Robert . 2015-10-16 . Writer's tribute to grandparents' world of 20,000 books . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170829023244/https://jweekly.com/2015/10/16/writers-tribute-to-grandparents-world-of-20000-books/ . August 29, 2017 . April 8, 2021 . J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
  9. News: Brook . Stephen . 10 April 2008 . Abramsky to leave BBC . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150227031308/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/apr/10/bbc.radio . 27 February 2015 . 14 February 2024 . The Guardian.
  10. Web site: Summerskill. Ben. February 3, 2002. Observer Profile: Jenny Abramsky: The cat's whiskers. 2020-08-13. www.theguardian.com.
  11. News: Abramsky. Sasha. 2015-08-27. How the Atheist Son of a Jewish Rabbi Created One of the Greatest Libraries of Socialist Literature. en-US. 2021-04-08. The Nation. 0027-8378.
  12. Web site: Butler . Menachem . December 2, 2015 . Japan's Takahito Mikasa at 100: A Prince Among the Jews . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220816164431/https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/a-prince-among-the-jews . August 16, 2022 . Tablet.

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