Scheftelowitz, Isidor
SCHEFTELOWITZ, ISIDOR
SCHEFTELOWITZ, ISIDOR (1876–1934), Orientalist and rabbi. Scheftelowitz was born in Sandersleben, duchy of Anhalt, Germany. He studied Sanskrit and Iranian philology and worked for a time at the British Museum and at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. During 1908–26 he served as rabbi and teacher of religion in Cologne. In 1919 he began teaching at the newly founded Cologne University, becoming professor in 1923. When the Nazis seized power, he emigrated to England and taught at Oxford University. Scheftelowitz made a considerable contribution to the study of Sanskrit and Iranian philology and history, as well as to that of comparative religion.
Among his published works are Arisches im Alten Testament (2 vols., 1901–03), Apocrypha der Rigveda (1906), Zur Textkritik und Lautlehre der Rigveda (1907), Das Fisch-Symbol im Judentum und Christentum (1911), Die altpersische Religion und das Judentum (1920), Die Entstehung der manichaeischen Religion… (1922), Die Bewertung der aramaeischen Urkunden von Assuan und Elephantine fuer die juedische und iranische Geschichte (Ger. and Heb., 1923), Is Manicheism an Iranian Religion? (1924), Altpalaestinensischer Bauernglaube (1925), and Die Zeit als Schicksalsgottheit in der indischen und iranischen Religion (1929).