Roth was born in Dalston, London, on 5 March 1899. His parents were Etty and Joseph Roth, and Cecil was the youngest of their four sons. In childhood, Cecil received a traditional Jewish religious education, including studying Hebrew with Jacob Mann. He went to school at City of London School. He fought in the First World War, seeing active duty in France in 1918.[2]
In 1928 he married Irene Rosalind Davis[3] and lived off freelance writing until returning to Oxford as Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies from 1939 to 1964.[3][2][5]
The couple were enthusiastic collectors of Judaism-related manuscripts and objets d'art, selling substantial collections of the former to the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds in 1961, and of the latter to the Beth Tzedec Synagogue Museum in Toronto.[2]
On his retirement from Oxford in 1964, at the invitation of Joseph H. Lookstein, Roth became a visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, moving to Jerusalem. However, within a month of his arrival he was attacked in a publication by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Bromberg for allegedly arguing that Moses never existed[6] – when in fact he had noted others' scepticism about Moses' existence and argued that Moses had in fact lived. The accusation prompted a scandal, and Roth suffered a heart attack in November 1964. Roth's wife Irene attributed the heart attack partly to stress of migrating, and partly to the stress of the accusations. Roth stood down from his position at the University early in 1965, citing ill health.[7] He went on to hold a position at the Queens College, City University of New York (1966–1969) while working as general editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, dying in post shortly after the first edition of the encyclopaedia was completed.[8]
Roth died, aged 71, on 21 June 1970 in Jerusalem.[5]
The Rise of Provincial Jewry (Oxford, 1950), available online,[12] as part of the Susser Archive of JCR-UK
History of the Jews (initially published as A Bird's-Eye View of Jewish History) (1954)
The Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia, 1959)
Jewish Art (1961)
The Dead Sea Scrolls (1965)
The House of Nasi: Doña Gracia (1969)
Biographyedit
Roth, Irene. Cecil Roth: Historian without Tears. A Memoir (New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1982), ISBN 9780872031036
Referencesedit
^ abc"ROTH, Cecil". Who Was Who. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
^ abcde'Provisional handlist of manuscripts in the Roth Collection', Handlist 164 (Leeds University Library).
^ abcdLevens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 120.
^"DR. CECIL ROTH, 71, HISTORIAN, IS DEAD". The New York Times. No. June 22, 1970 page 37. 22 June 1970.
^ abc"Dr Cecil Roth". The Times. 22 June 1970. p. 12. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
^Myers, David N. (2002). The Problem of History in German-Jewish Thought(PDF). Graphit Press Ltd.[dead link]
^Roth, Irene. Cecil Roth: Historian without Tears. A Memoir (New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1982), pages 207-10; ISBN 9780872031036.
^Roth, Irene. Cecil Roth: Historian without Tears. A Memoir (New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1982), pages 214-17; ISBN 9780872031036.