SHMUELI, EPHRAIM

SHMUELI, EPHRAIM (1908– ), educator, author, and historian. Born in Lodz, Poland, Shmueli immigrated to Ereẓ Israel in 1933. He taught at several U.S. institutions of Jewish learning, and in 1969 was professor of philosophy and religion at Cleveland State University.

Most of Shmueli's literary and journalistic efforts – all in Hebrew – were devoted to education, sociology, history, and philosophy. His works include Demuyyot u-Me'ora'ot be-Toledot Ammenu (1940), an account of important personages and events in Jewish history; Masoret u-Mahapekhah (1942), monographs on tradition and revolution in Jewish history; Me-Az ad Attah (1943), historical miniatures; Toledot ha-Ẓiyyonut (2 vols., 1947–50), a history of Zionism; Be'ayot ha-Am ha-Yehudi ba-Zeman ha-Zeh (1960), on the problems of contemporary Jewry; Bein Emunah li-Khefirah (1961), on the problems of faith and heresy in Jewish history; Don Yiẓḥak Abravanel (1963); and Beit Yisrael u-Medinat Yisrael (1966), on the main currents in U.S. Jewish life. Together with Max Mordechai *Solieli, he co-authored Bi-Netiv ha-Dorot (1944), a study on the destiny of Jewry. Shmueli published two textbooks of Jewish history, Toledot Ammenu ba-Zeman he-Ḥadash (7 vols., 1941–58) and Korot Ammenu (1968). In addition, he wrote a number of studies on non-Jewish themes, among them a monograph on Miguel de Cervantes (1952), and a work on Baruch *Spinoza (1963). His Sheva Tarbuyyot Yisrael (1980) appeared in English translation as Seven Jewish Cultures: A Reinterpretation of Jewish History and Thought, in 1990.

bibliography:

A. Shaanan, Millon ha-Sifrut ha-Ḥadashah (1959), 847–8; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 946.

[Eisig Silberschlag]