HORODISCH, ABRAHAM

HORODISCH, ABRAHAM (1898–1987), antiquarian bookseller and bibliophile. Born in Lodz, Horodisch was raised in Koenigsberg, East Prussia. He studied economics in Berlin and earned a doctorate in that field in 1920 from the University of Frankfurt. Upon returning to Berlin he founded, together with Ernst Rathenau, the Euphorion Verlag (1920–25) and later the publishing firm of Horodisch & Marx (1925–55) and the Aldus Printing Press. He was a co-founder of the Soncino Society and a member of the general Berlin bibliophile Maximilian Society. Together with his wife, Alice Garman, herself a graphic designer, he moved to Amsterdam soon after Hitler's rise to power in 1933. There he established the Erasmus Antiquariate, which gained a wide reputation. In 1943 he and his wife escaped to Switzerland. Upon their return in 1945, they found the entire stock of the Antiquariate gone. Horodisch managed to build it up again, beyond its original size and renown. He wrote over 200 articles and books on various aspects of book-lore, some of them on Jewish themes, such as Die Exlibris des Uriel Birnbaum (1957) and Die Graphik der Chalukah (1973).

On his 60^th birthday (in 1958) and on the 50^th anniversary of the Erasmus Antiquariate, Jubilee Volumes appeared in his honor, the first titled Amor Librorum, the second De Arte et Libris. In 1978 he was awarded the Zilveren Anjer (Silver Carnation) by the Prins Bernard Fonds. Horodisch's art collection, which features German Weimar art, was donated to the Tel Aviv Museum. Horodisch further bequeathed a considerable part of his private library, including many works on Japanese art, to Tel Aviv University, where a Horodisch Chair for the history of books was established.

[Henriette Boas]