Abelson, Joshua

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ABELSON, JOSHUA

ABELSON, JOSHUA (1873–1940), English minister. Born in Merthyr Tydfil (Wales), Abelson was ordained at *Jews' College in London, and occupied pulpits in Cardiff and Bristol. He became principal of the Jewish theological preparatory school Aria College in Portsmouth, after which he was appointed minister to the United Hebrew Congregation of Leeds. Abelson's works include The Immanence of God in Rabbinical Literature (1912), in which he examined the theory of the Shekhinah in the rabbinic sources, and its connection with the later development of Jewish mysticism. This work was followed by Jewish Mysticism (1913), the earliest serious study of the subject in English. He assisted Chief Rabbi Joseph *Hertz in the editing of Hertz's Commentary on the Pentateuch, published in 1929–36.

bibliography:

jyb (1903–04, 1940); G. Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica (19332), no. 2; Scholem, Mysticism (19462), 55.

[Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)]

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