Jacob Nahum Epstein

Jacob Nahum Epstein was born in 1878 in Brest

Epstein was born in 1878 in Brest, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Rabbi Chaim Halevi Epstein, taught him at home after he studied in a cheder. He later studied at the Mir yeshiva.

He moved to Vilna to research in the Strashun Library. He then studied in Vienna and earned a doctorate in Semitic philology from the University of Bern in 1912. His thesis dealt with geonic commentaries on the order of Tohorot.

In 1923 he took a post at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. He then joined the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University, where he founded the journal Tarbiz and served as dean from 1936 to 1938. His students included Saul Lieberman and Ezra Zion Melamed.

His book on the text of the Mishnah won the Bialik Prize in 1948. He married Tzipora de Beer and lived in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. He died in 1952 and was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery, and Melamed later published his remaining works.