ABRAMSON, SHRAGA

ABRAMSON, SHRAGA (1915–1996), rabbinic scholar. Born in Ciechanowiec, in the district of Bialystok, Poland, he received rabbinic ordination in 1936, in which year he immigrated to Ereẓ Israel where he continued his education in various yeshivot and at the Hebrew University. He served on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York from 1952 until 1958, the final year as associate professor. From 1958 he was professor of Talmud, Geonica, and rishonim at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His scholarly contributions are to be found in the areas of Talmud, Geonica, rabbinic Hebrew, biblical exegesis and interpretation in the Middle Ages, medieval Hebrew poetry and literature, and medieval Hebrew philology. They are noteworthy for their erudition in talmudic and rabbinic literature and their disciplined scientific research methods. His main field, however, is Geonica to which he has made important contributions. He was awarded the Israel Prize for Jewish studies in 1974.

His most important published work was R. Nissim Ga'on (Heb., 1965). Among his earlier works are critical editions of R. Samuel ha-Nagid, Ben Mishlei (1948) and Ben Kohelet (1953). His other published works include Massekhet Avodah Zarah (1957), a publication of a manuscript of the tractate Avodah Zarah of the Babylonian Talmud; Massekhet Bava Batra (1958), a Hebrew translation of the tractate Bava Batra of the Babylonian Talmud; Ba-Merkazim u-va-Tefuẓot bi-Tekufat ha-Ge'onim (1965), on the geonic period; Bi-Leshon Kodemim (1965), a study in medieval Hebrew poetry; and Sheloshah Sefarim shel R. Yehudah ibn Bala'am.

[Israel Francus]