Jaffe Phillip
Jaffe Phillip [1]
a celebrated modern Jewish scholar, was born at Schwersenz, near the city of Posen, in Prussian Poland, about 1820. His early education he received first at the high school of his native town, and then under the care of the father of the writer of this article. After graduating at the Gymnasium of Posen, he began his university career by the study of medicine, and duly obtained his degree. He declined, however, to comply with the wishes of his friends to enter the medical profession, and continued his stay at the university, devoting himself to his favorite studies, history and philology. In 1843 he gave to the world a' History of the German Empire under Lothair the Saxon, and, owing to the excellence of this work, he subsequently became a regular contributor to Pertz's Monument of Germaniae Historica. His articles and essays -the outgrowth of most laborious researches - were read eagerly, and admired by all scholars interested in the history and literature of Germany, and led ultimately to his appointment as "extraordinary" professor of history at the University of Berlin. He was the first Jew upon whom the honor of such a distinguished appointment was conferred by the Prussian government. He now further distinguished himself by a contribution to the history of the papacy-Regesta Pontifico Roman. ad MCXCVIII (Berol. 1851, 4to) — a work which at once was acknowledged a masterpiece in its department, and will forever remain valuable for the chronological records of the Roman hierarchy. In 1868 Jaffe embraced Christianity evidently with a design to further promotion, from which, by his religious profession, he seemed to be barred. But he soon repented of the step, and so great became the conflict in his heart that he committed suicide in the summer of 1870. (J. H. W.)
