Hirschfelder, Jacob Maier
1819-1902
Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
Hebrew/ Oriental Languages
King’s College (from about 1840)
Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, German
UofT (from 1850-1888)
Lecturer, Oriental languages
Hirschfelder was known as the founder of Oriental Studies at the University of Toronto. Starting in 1844, Hirschfelder began his career at King's College privately tutoring students in Hebrew. After a statute providing a chair in Hebrew and Oriental languages in 1844, he was appointed in the autumn of 1850 to the staff as a 'lecturer in Oriental Literature.' When King's College was renamed the University of Toronto in 1850, the university welcomed their first full academic year with 68 student, 33 of whom were taking Hebrew. Hirschfelder wroteThe Scriptures Defended (1865). He retired in 1889 and died in 1902 at the age of 83. He was succeeded by James Frederick McCurdy has head of Oriental Languages. Winett, Frederick Victor, McCullough, Stewart W. A Brief History of the Department of Near Eastern Studies.
Starkman, Mel. ‘A Meshamud [Jacob Mier Hirschfelder] at the University of Toronto,’ Journal of the Canadian Jewish Historical Society, 5, 2 (October 1981) 70-90
