1. It is not uncommon for Qaraite studies to suffer from the unavailability of literary sources. This can be caused by the date of the works or their geographical origin, as well as the necessity of relying on an often insecure manuscript tradition. Therefore, in many cases scholars rely on secondary sources to partially reconstruct the texts of interest and the circumstances in which they were composed. Surprisingly, however, the unavailability of literary sources in Qaraite studies does not always concern works from the premodern age but also secondary studies, as is the case with E. I. Szadzunski’s PhD dissertation “Yefet ben Ali’s Arabic Commentary on Micah”, written at Dropsie College in Philadelphia in 1937. In the period since it was written, all copies of the dissertation would appear to have gone missing.1 For more than a year we investigated whether any copies have survived, but unfortunately had to halt our search due to the lack of further leads.

2. When it comes to E. I. Szadzunski himself, he went on to become Dr. Lawrence Marwick and the head of the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. between 1948 and 1980. He continued researching and publishing in the field of Qaraite studies. Compared to many of his contemporary scholars, such as Philip Birnbaum2 or Solomon Skoss,3 the circumstances of Marwick’s (academic) life seem to be quite obscure. Since the obituaries written in Marwick’s remembrance4 as well as the only encyclopedic entry available5 do not reveal many details about his earlier years, we will try to shed some light on it here.

3. What started as an attempt to locate the lost dissertation has turned into an attempt to reconstruct Dr. Marwick’s earlier (academic) years and his contributions to Judaic and Qaraite studies; this turns out to be of quite some interest in terms of the academic as well as the sociopolitical environment in which he wrote his contributions. In addition, we hope it might be of help for future investigations into the possible whereabouts of a copy of “Yefet ben Ali’s Arabic Commentary on Micah”.

Education and emigration

4. Lawrence Marwick was born Eleazar Isar Szadzunski on 15 September 19096 in Sopoćkinie, then in Congress Poland (part of the Russian Empire), now in Belarus (and known as Sapotskin in Belarusian). Early on, the spelling of his full name was subject to volatility due to the multilingual environment in which he lived. Eleazar Isar Szadzunski seems to have been the spelling, anglicized to a certain degree, which he employed in his academic writing. In official documentation, including in the earliest available document dating back to 1928, he used the Polish spelling of his name, Lozer Iser Szadziunski.7

Figure 1: E. I. Szadziunski, c. 1928. Contained in EAA.2100.1.15580. Reproduction with kind permission of the National Archives of Estonia.

5. In May 1942 he changed his name officially to Lawrence Marwick, although unofficially he used also E. (Lawrence) Marwick in his earlier publications,8 which likely stems from the Hebrew form of his name, Eleazar9/Eliezer10 Marwik (אלעזר/אליעזר מארוויק). Additionally, a literal translation of his later English name, לורנס מארוויק (‘Lorens Marwik’), was often employed in Hebrew press reports.11

6. Szadziunski (henceforth: Szadzunski) attended the prestigious12 Białystok Hebrew Gymnasium. He graduated in 1928, with inter alia an “excellentissimus” in Jewish history and the subject of “vetere testamento” and an “excellens” in “doctrinis talmudicis, agada, mischna” as well as in “lingua Hebraica”.13 Allony additionally remarks of the young Szadzunski that one of his Hebrew poems was published in a Warsaw newspaper.14 Szadzunski tried to enroll in the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Tartu, Estonia, in the autumn of 192815 – this was probably because, due to the legal status of the Białystok Gymnasium, he was barred from applying directly to Polish institutions and therefore chose Tartu.16 For reasons unknown, however, he never pursued a degree in Estonia and instead emigrated to the United States in September 1929 aboard the SS Lapland.17 Most likely, he did this because the University of Tartu was underequipped when it came to his interests, since a comprehensive Judaic studies program was only instituted at Tartu in 1934.18 In any case, it remains unclear why Szadzunski chose the University of Tartu in the first place.

7. In the United States he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in 193119 and in 1932 he submitted his master’s thesis entitled “The Talmudical Writings as a Source for Parthian and Sassanid History” under the supervision of Professor Albert T. Olmstead.20 In stark contrast to his PhD of five years later, a copy of his MA thesis has survived in the holdings of the University Library of Chicago.21

Two names and two PhDs

8. Following his master’s thesis, Szadzunski pursued his PhD under the supervision of Professor Solomon L. Skoss at Dropsie College. From mid-1935 to mid-193622 Szadzunski resided in Egypt and studied Arabic, Arabic history and Arabic literature at the Egyptian National University in Cairo. According to Allony, Taha Hussein was one of his professors.23 Dr. Philip E. Miller24 stated that Szadzunski came in contact with the Qaraite Līshaʿ family25 and additionally visited Mandatory Palestine.26 One year later, in 1937, Szadzunski finished his PhD dissertation, now presumed to be lost, entitled “Yefet ben Ali’s Arabic Commentary on Micah”.

9. Although his own PhD might not have survived, it is likely that Szadzunski was crucially involved in the work of another PhD dissertation. Dr. Marzena Zawanowska pointed out in 2014 that according to Philip E. Miller, Marwick might have been substantially involved in the making of “The Arabic Commentary of Yefet Ben Ali the Karaite on the Book of Hosea” by Philip Birnbaum, who was also pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Solomon Skoss.27 Philip Miller claimed that Marwick himself told him about the exact circumstances. According to Marwick, he sold part of his research to Birnbaum for the sum of 100 USD after Skoss suggested the exchange, because Marwick needed the money.28 As proof, Miller indicated that the review that Marwick wrote29 of Birnbaum’s PhD30 pointed out incorrect readings, and this would only have been possible because Marwick knew intimately the manuscripts employed in Birnbaum’s PhD. This had, in fact, been the basis on which Dr. Daniel Frank concluded that the manuscripts used in Birnbaum’s PhD were at least highly likely those employed by Marwick in his “Retribution & Redemption”.31

10. In 1942, Szadzunski legally changed his name to Lawrence Marwick.32 Although the larger political and social climate and the possibility of being posted to the European theater after joining the US military might have played a role, the exact reasons for his name change are unknown.33 Neither living relatives nor close colleagues can recall exactly why he chose ‘Lawrence’ and ‘Marwick’. Although circumstantial, it should be noted that there seems to have been a relationship between a “Leah Szadzunski of Europe” and a “Philip Marwick”34 of the Chicago area, who died in 1932.35 As mentioned earlier, until at least 1932 Eleazar Szadzunski studied at the University of Chicago – perhaps he stayed with relatives during his studies and later opted to take the surname of another branch of the larger Szadzunski family.

WWII and Library of Congress service

11. Marwick’s WWII service is the subject of another mystery surrounding his life and work. He served from December 1941 until November 1945, and spent January–November 1945 in “foreign service”, i.e., overseas.36 According to Philip E. Miller, due to his knowledge of Russian, Marwick was stationed at the US Embassy in Moscow as “General Eisenhower’s attaché” in order to “eavesdrop on officials’ conversations”.37 This, however, stands in stark contrast to contemporary newspaper and Library of Congress reports about Marwick. According to a report in the Detroit Jewish News, Marwick was part of the US Counter Intelligence Corps, in which he participated “in the battles for Northern and Central Germany and in the decisive assault from the air across the Rhine”. It continues on to mention him as one of the first Americans to enter Berlin and as being “among the first to contact the remaining survivors of Nazi horror camps in Northern Germany”.38 In the 1954 Congressional Record he is – together with his presence in Berlin as one of the first Americans – credited as having “witnessed the liberation of the first concentration camps in Germany”.39 A “Staff News” story by the Library of Congress on the occasion of his passing states briefly that Marwick served as “special agent in charge with the Counterintelligence Corps of the First Allied Airborne Division in the European Theater of Operations”.40 A possible cover story, thus, might have worked in both ways, either concealing his involvement in espionage as part of a diplomatic legation or as a deterrent, to spare conversation partners from the horrors he witnessed firsthand.

Figure 2: Dr. Marwick in 1964. Reproduction with kind permission of the Archive of the Detroit Jewish News.

12. From 1948, Marwick was part of the Library of Congress as head of the Hebraic Section and entrusted with the acquisition of new materials, for which he traveled extensively, inter alia to Europe, East Africa and Israel. He is credited with having assisted in turning the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress into “the largest collection of Hebraica, Judaica, and Semitica ever assembled under [US] Government auspices”41 at the time of his retirement. His tenure fell at a crucial point in time in terms of the larger political climate in the Middle East, and his service could be characterized as that of a librarian-diplomat. It is, therefore, not surprising that his day-to-day business with Israeli institutions inspired him to write two contributions in the field of diplomatic Hebrew.42 Furthermore, during his career he met with many Israeli politicians, including Abba Eban, David Ben Gurion and Zalman Shazar.43 In addition to his Library of Congress service he served as adjunct professor for Arabic and Islamic Studies at Dropsie College and also lectured at New York University’s Graduate School.44

13. In 1980, Marwick retired from the Library of Congress.45 Even after his retirement, he continued to serve his ideals of educating and participated, for example, in lectures organized by the Washington Hebrew Congregation. His last lecture, entitled “The American Jewish Theater” and scheduled for 28 February 1982,46 he would, however, never attend. Dr. Lawrence E. Marwick died on 17 October 1981 in Bethesda.47

Contribution to Jewish and Qaraite Studies

14. Marwick belonged to a generation of scholars who shifted the center of research in Judaic studies from Europe – chiefly the German-speaking sphere – towards the Anglophone world. His biography is therefore highly representative of the intelligentsia who for various reasons left the ‘Old Continent’ in the first half of the 20th century and brought with them a huge treasure trove of knowledge to their countries of destination.

15. Obviously in Marwick’s case, he was highly gifted in the field of languages.48 Academically, he specialized in the study of Oriental Jewry – initially as exemplified in his master’s thesis and a very early publication about ‘Arabia’;49 and later and primarily through his research on Qaraite Judaism, initiated with his stay in Cairo and actively continued until at least the 1960s, with his army service acting like a booster to his research, as several research contributions were published during his years of domestic army service. After submitting his PhD in 1937, he conducted research in several relevant libraries in the US and UK, and it appears that this research phase even extended into WWII.50

16. Marwick was keenly interested in Qaraite Bible commentaries. Initial publications treated commentaries by Yefet ben ʿElī (Marwick 1937, 1943a, 1943b, [2003]) and then of similar writings by Salmon ben Yeruḥam (Marwick 1944a, 1944b, 1956). His research interests in later years included Daniel al-Qūmisī (Marwick 1961) and David ben Abraham al-Fāsī (Marwick 1962–1963), the latter probably due to Solomon Skoss’s work on al-Fāsī’s Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Alfāẓ wherein Szadzunski/Marwick is acknowledged for his valuable help.51 According to Zawanowska, together with Philip Birnbaum, Marwick belonged to a generation of researchers who, due to earlier editions, were able to engage in a closer examination of Yefet ben ʿElī’s exegetical practices.52 Additionally, Marwick continued the groundwork for later generations of researchers by making Qaraite texts available for research. In this endeavor, he facilitated access to works contained in manuscripts that were more difficult to access, such as those in Leningrad and in the Līshaʿ private library.

17. But his contributions reached beyond Oriental Jewry and comprised even contemporary issues such as exemplified by his compilation of two diplomatic Hebrew glossaries.53 Indeed, his second great interest was the field of the Yiddish language. During his Library of Congress tenure he began a roster of copyrighted Yiddish plays that lead to a posthumously published catalog. Due to his contribution the Library of Congress opted to name its collection of copyrighted Yiddish plays in honor of Lawrence Marwick.54 He also actively participated in keeping Yiddish alive as a spoken language, whenever there arose an opportunity to do so.55

18. Marwick embodied an ‘encyclopedic scholar’ whose knowledge about Judaism was so broad that it could not fit within one of the various institutional departments of learning and was instead well placed at the service of a library and therefore the wider public. His advice, even about contemporary political-diplomatic issues, was highly sought after by fellow scholars, as is evident in the many mentions of him in forewords and footnotes.56 A broader production of publications was only hindered by financial constraints resulting from the fact that his research was not backed by an institution. In his 1956 diplomatic edition, for example, he mentions that high printing costs hindered him from including introductory studies and notes57 – and it is likely that this was the case for further publications more generally in the field of Karaitica and beyond.

Lost or partially lost?

19. Dr. Marwick’s academic legacy, however, did not stop there. After his passing, Dr. Philip E. Miller took care of his academic Nachlass. Contained therein were preparations for the publication of an edition of Yefet b. ʿElī’s Commentary on the Minor Prophets. Years later, most likely in 2003, a small number of those preparations were printed by the New York based al-Qirqisani Center under the auspices of Yosef Yaron under the title Retribution & Redemption: A Lost Work of Lawrence Marwick.58 This late printing contained among other editions an edition of Yefet’s Commentary on Micah. How much of his original PhD dissertation survives in this work is unknown; the original edition in the dissertation was probably accompanied by an introduction and notes, as was and continues to be usual in PhD dissertations of this kind.

20. So, then, if anyone has clues, hints or ideas about the possible whereabouts of Dr. Lawrence Marwick’s PhD dissertation, please come forward: scholars will thank you in decades to come.

References

  1. Walfish and Kizilov 2011: 405; Zawanowska 2014: 114n68. ↩︎
  2. See, e.g., https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/philip-birnbaum-jewish-virtual-library or his wikipedia entry. ↩︎
  3. See, e.g., I. Skoss 1957. ↩︎
  4. See, e.g., Washington Post, 31 October 1981, p. B7; Brunswick 1982. ↩︎
  5. Beloff 2006. ↩︎
  6. Although his 1950s application for WWII compensation suggests 16 September 1909 as his date of birth, earlier documents – which in addition clearly contain his signature – state a day earlier. ↩︎
  7. E.g., in his 1937 US naturalization form and in his aforementioned WWII compensation form. ↩︎
  8. For ‘E. Marwick’, see Marwick 1943a; for ‘E. Lawrence Marwick’, see Marwick 1943b, 1944a, 1944b. ↩︎
  9. E.g., in the obituary by Nehemiah Allony (Allony 1982–1983). ↩︎
  10. E.g., used by the National Library of Israel; e.g., https://www.nli.org.il/he/archives/NNL_ARCHIVE_AL990038166880205171/NLI. ↩︎
  11. E.g., ha-Tsofeh, 5 April 1953, p. 5; ha-Aretz, 10 July 1963, p. 5. ↩︎
  12. The aim of the Białystok Gymnasium was, in the words of a contemporary, “to produce a proud Jew, a modern man, conscious of nationality and humanity”. In this spirit, it was visited in, e.g., 1923 alone by Nahum Sokolow and Hayim Nahman Bialik (Samid 1995: 19, 40). Famous alumni of the Gymnasium include inter alia Israeli politicians Yitzhak Shamir, Haika Grossman and Joseph Serlin, scientist Manes Pratt and historian Menahem Stern (Samid 1995: 6, 197). ↩︎
  13. Transcript of his diploma, in the National Archives of Estonia, EAA.2100.1.15580. ↩︎
  14. Allony 1982–1983: 35. ↩︎
  15. Enrollment application, National Archives of Estonia, EAA.2100.1.15580. ↩︎
  16. In 1928, the Białystok Gymnasium did not yet possess ‘state rights’, which would have entailed an automatic recognition of Białystok Gymnasium’s high school diplomas by Polish universities. Those rights would only be awarded later, in 1932 (Samid 1995: 34, 86–87). ↩︎
  17. Passenger list of the SS Lapland, dated 20 September 1929. ↩︎
  18. Weiss-Wendt 2017: 7–8. ↩︎
  19. Allony 1982–1983: 35. ↩︎
  20. The first pages of the thesis are free to view at https://www.proquest.com/docview/301787879. ↩︎
  21. See http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4302213. ↩︎
  22. Passenger list of the SS Jervis Bay dated 17 July 1935 and Szadzunski’s naturalization form dated 1 April 1937. ↩︎
  23. Allony 1982–1983: 35. ↩︎
  24. Dr. Philip E. Miller was an acquaintance of Dr. Marwick from the 1960s. Later he became the director of the New York library of the Hebrew Union College. Sadly, he passed away in August 2024. ↩︎
  25. This would explain why one of the manuscripts used in his PhD is mostly likely found in the Līshaʿ collection, now housed in Lausanne (see Frank [2003]: [2]). In addition, he extended his gratitude in one of his earlier articles on Yefet b. ʿElī to “his friend, Mr. David Z. Lichaa, gabbay of the New Karaite Synagogue, Abbasiyeh, Cairo, Egypt for permission to use and to make extracts from his fine collection of Karaite manuscripts” (Marwick 1943b: 445). For a manuscript on Salmon ben Yeruḥam’s commentary on Lamentations in the Līshaʿ collection, see Marwick 1944a: 313n4. ↩︎
  26. Philip E. Miller, personal communication, October 2023. ↩︎
  27. Zawanowska 2014: 113n63. ↩︎
  28. Philip E. Miller, personal communication, October 2023. ↩︎
  29. Marwick 1943a. ↩︎
  30. Birnbaum 1942. ↩︎
  31. See the last section below and Frank [2003]: [1]–[2]. ↩︎
  32. The change of name was legally effective starting on 1 May 1942; see his WWII compensation form. ↩︎
  33. Although Philip E. Miller claimed (personal communication, October 2023) that Marwick changed his name in order to conceal his fluency in Russian due to an obvious East European background and the alleged requirements of his WWII service, I find this claim rather strange, in light of the possibility of opting for an ‘agent name’ or ‘nom de guerre’. See also the disputed backstory of Marwick’s WWII service stories in the following section. ↩︎
  34. Both appear in the obituary of a certain William Markowitz in The Sentinel, 15 June 1933, p. 22, and in The Reform Advocate, 17 June 1933, p. 342. It should be further noted that both mentions are apparently the only instances where the surname ‘Szadzunski’ appears – at least in its Latin-character form – within the digitized newspaper collections of the National Library of Israel. ↩︎
  35. Chicago Daily Tribune, 24 November 1932, p. 38. ↩︎
  36. WWII compensation form. ↩︎
  37. Philip E. Miller, personal communication, October 2023. ↩︎
  38. Detroit Jewish News, 1 May 1959, p. 23. ↩︎
  39. Congressional Records 1954 (vol. 100), Appendix A3701. ↩︎
  40. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October 1981, “Staff News”, p. [2]. ↩︎
  41. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October 1981, “Staff News”, p. [1]. ↩︎
  42. See note 53 below. ↩︎
  43. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 01 April 1952, p. B3; Congressional Records 1954 (vol. 100), Appendix A3701; Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October1981, “Staff News”, p. [1]. ↩︎
  44. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October 1981, “Staff News”, p. [1]. ↩︎
  45. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 20, 16 May 1980, “Staff News”, p. [1]. ↩︎
  46. Washington Post, 23 October 1981, p. A19. ↩︎
  47. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October 1981, “Staff News”, p. [1]. ↩︎
  48. Early on in his life, he knew/spoke Latin, Hebrew, Polish, English, Yiddish, Russian and German, and later acquired very substantial Arabic and Aramaic skills. According to his obituaries, his knowledge even comprised “other Semitic tongues” (Library of Congress Information Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 44, 30 October 1981, “Staff News”, p. [1]). He also knew some Estonian (see National Archives of Estonia, EAA.2100.1.15580). ↩︎
  49. Szadzunski 1933. ↩︎
  50. He mentions having visited the libraries of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library and Trinity College during this period. He goes on to thank the library staff for their “courageous and valiant” service, even during war time (Marwick 1943b: 445). ↩︎
  51. See note 56 below. ↩︎
  52. Zawanowska 2014: 113. ↩︎
  53. Marwick 1957, 1980. ↩︎
  54. Heskes 1992; Baker 2004: v. ↩︎
  55. E.g., in his moderation at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Jewish Public Library of Montreal or in interviews such as e.g., in Der Nayyer Moment/O Novo Momento, 22 April 1955, p. 6. ↩︎
  56. E.g., Olmstead 1936: 253n41; S. L. Skoss 1936: xii, 1945: xiv; Manuel 1949: foreword; Brunswick 1982: 3. ↩︎
  57. Marwick 1956: foreword. ↩︎
  58. Dr. Daniel Frank of Ohio State University described the circumstances of the printing in an introductory note that seems to have never been included in the actual printed copies of Retribution & Redemption (Frank [2003]). ↩︎

Literature

Allony, Nehemiah. 1982–1983. “Three Scholars Who Passed Away” [in Hebrew]. Newsletter of the World Union of Jewish Studies. 33–36.

Baker, Zachary M. 2004. The Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays at The Library of Congress: An Annotated Bibliography. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress.

Beloff, Ruth. 2006. Marwick, Lawrence in Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). online: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marwick-lawrence.

Birnbaum, Philip. 1942. The Arabic Commentary of Yefet Ben ʿAli the Karaite on the Book of Hosea [PhD dissertation]. Philadelphia: Dropsie College.

Brunswick, Sheldon R. 1982. “Lawrence Marwick, 1909–1981”. Studies in Bibliography and Booklore. 3.

Frank, Daniel. [2003]. Yefet ben ʿAli’s Commentary on Joel-Micah [intended as a foreword to Marwick, never included in physical copies], online: https://www.mediafire.com/file/7d76p2io4kbvnqh/Marwick_Yefet_Minor_Prophets.pdf/file.

Heskes, Irene. 1992. Yiddish American Popular Songs, 1895–1950: A Catalog Based on the Lawrence Marwick Roster of Copyright Entries. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress.

Manuel, Frank E. 1949. The Realities of American-Palestine Relations. Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press.

Marwick, E. 1943a, [Review of] The Arabic Commentary of Yefet ben ʿAli the Karaite on the Book of Hosea [, Birnbaum, 1942], Journal of Biblical Literature. 37–43.

Marwick, E. Lawrence. 1943b. “The Order of the Books in Yefet’s Bible Codex”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. 445–460.

Marwick, E. Lawrence. 1944a. “Studies in Salmon ben Yeruḥam: I. Lamentations”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. 313–320.

Marwick, E. Lawrence. 1944b. “Studies in Salmon ben Yeruham (Continued)”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. 475–480.

Marwick, Lawrence. 1956. The Arabic Commentary of Salmon ben Yeruham the Karaite on the Book of Psalms Chapters 42–72. Philadelphia: Dropsie College.

Marwick, Lawrence. 1957. A Handbook of Diplomatic Hebrew. Washington D.C.: Davelle Publishers.

Marwick, Lawrence. 1961. “Daniel al-Qumisi and the Pitron Shenem ʿAsar”. Studies in Bibliography and Booklore. 42–61.

Marwick, Lawrence. 1962–1963. “A First Fragment from David b. Abraham al-Fasi’s Commentary on Psalms”. Studies in Bibliography and Booklore. 53–72.

Marwick, Lawrence. 1980. Diplomatic Hebrew: A Glossary of Current Terminology. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress.

Marwick, Lawrence. [2003]. Retribution & Redemption: Yefet ben ʿEli on the Minor Prophets: A lost work of Lawrence Marwick. [al-Qirqisani Center for the Promotion of Karaite Studies].

Olmstead, A. T. 1936. “Intertestamental Studies”. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 242–257.

Skoss, Solomon Leon. 1936. The Hebrew-Arabic Dictionary of the Bible, known as Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Alfāz (Agrōn). vol. 1. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Skoss, Solomon Leon. 1945. The Hebrew-Arabic Dictionary of the Bible, known as Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Alfāz (Agrōn). vol. 2. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Skoss, Irene (ed.). 1957. Portrait of a Jewish Scholar. New York: Bloch Publishing Company.

Samid, Yaacov. 1995. The Immortal Spirit: The Bialystok Hebrew Gymnasium, Poland, 1919–1939 [translation of 1992 Hebrew edition]. Haifa: Traffic Publications.

Szadzunski, E. I. 1933. “Addenda to Krauss, “Talmudische Nachrichten über Arabien”, ZDMG, LXX, 325 ff”. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 336–338.

Walfish, Barry Dov and Kizilov, Mikhail. 2011. Bibliographia Karaitica. Brill: Leiden.

Weiss-Wendt, Anton. 2017. On the Margins: About the History of Jews in Estonia. Budapest: Central European University Press.

Zawanowska, Marzena. 2014. “Review of Scholarly Research on Yefet Ben ʿEli and his Works”. Revue des études juives. 97–138.

Archival and newspaper sources

Chicago Daily Tribune, at https://archive.org.

Congressional Records, at https://archive.org.

Der Nayyer Moment/O Novo Momento, at https://www.nli.org.il.

Detroit Jewish News, at https://digital.bentley.umich.edu.

Evening Star, at https://www.nli.org.il.

Ha-Aretz, at https://www.nli.org.il.

Ha-Tsofeh, at https://www.nli.org.il.

Library of Congress Information Bulletin, at https://archive.org.

National Archives of Estonia (EAA), folder EAA.2100.1.15580, at https://www.ra.ee.

Reform Advocate, at https://www.nli.org.il.

The Sentinel, at https://www.nli.org.il.

Washington Post, at https://www.washingtonpost.com.

Recordings

Moderation at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Jewish Public Library of Montreal, at https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org.

Maurizio Boehm is is a M.A. student at the Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich.

Suggested Citation: Maurizio Boehm, “Scarcer than the manuscripts upon which it is based: Lawrence Marwick and his presumed-to-be-lost PhD dissertation”, Munich Research Centre for Jewish-Arabic Cultures Blog, 23 July 2025, URL: https://www.jewisharabiccultures.fak12.uni-muenchen.de/scarcer-than-the-manuscripts/. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.