Archive - Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation Records

Alexander Kohut was born April 22, 1842 into a family with a long lineage of Rabbis. He received his rabbinical diploma in 1867 and was elected chief rabbi of Pecs, Hungary in 1872. He began to compile the Dictionary of the Talmud in 1873. The eight volumes of his encyclopedic Talmudic dictionary, the Aruch Completum, were published between 1878 and 1892, and were the result of twenty-five years of scholarship. In 1885 Kohut was elected rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New York. He was associated with the Rev. Sabato Morais in the founding of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was a member of the advisory board, as well as a professor in Talmudic methodology. He died on May 25, 1894.

The Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation was founded in 1915 by George Alexander Kohut, in memory of his father Alexander Kohut. The foundation’s purpose was to “stimulate, encourage, and carry on research in Jewish literature and related fields of learning…to encourage scholars to undertake Semitic and Jewish research.” The foundation was incorporated into New York State on June 17, 1926. The assets of the foundation were then transferred to the American Academy for Jewish Research on February 28, 1968.

Sources:
Alexander Kohut. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kohut. Accessed July 7, 2015.
Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation Records Accession Sheet
Shalom Spiegel (Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation Records) Accession Sheet