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Gotthard Deutsch (1859 – 1921) was a scholar of Jewish history. He was born in Dolní Kounice, Moravia, Austria, as Eliezer Deutsch, the son of Bernhard L. Deutsch, a merchant, and Elise Wiener. He always called himself Gotthard, an attempted translation into German of his Jewish given name. Deutsch entered Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau in October 1876. While attending seminary classes, he also enrolled in afternoon classes at the University of Breslau. At the seminary, he was influenced by the noted Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz. Matriculating in 1879 at the University of Vienna, two years later he received his Ph.D. in history. While attending the university, he enrolled in a Talmudic course taught by Isaac Hirsch Weiss at Beth Hammidrash. During his studies in Vienna, Deutsch drew inspiration and guidance from both Weiss and Adolf Jellinek, an authority in Midrashic research. Shortly after his graduation, Deutsch received Semichah (ordination) from Weiss.

In 1881 Deutsch accepted a probational position as shabbath schoolteacher for a Jewish congregation in Brno, Moravia. The following year he was appointed to teach religion at the city's German high school. After teaching for six years (1881–1887) at Brno, he entered the rabbinate. His first and only charge came in 1887, in the town of Most, Bohemia. Deutsch was far from content at his new vocation. Soon, he yearned for an academic milieu and the opportunity of satisfying his craving for knowledge. While at Most he married in May 1888 Hermine Bacher; the couple had three sons and two daughters.

In 1891, at the invitation of Isaac Mayer Wise, Deutsch moved to the United States to accept the chair of Jewish history and philosophy at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. After eleven years of teaching there, he was appointed dean. In February 1903, after the death of Moses Mielziner, he was designated acting president of the college, a position he held until October of the same year.

In 1912 Deutsch delivered lectures on Jewish history at the University of Chicago. While speaking at schools throughout the United States, Deutsch was also a guiding force at the local level. This included his association with the Cincinnati German Club and in 1909 his election to the Cincinnati Board of Education, a position he held for four years. Much of Deutsch's time was also spent as an editor and chief contributor to the Jewish Encyclopedia, as corresponding secretary for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and as chairman of the conference's Committee on Contemporaneous History.

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Reference

Singerman #4982; Wikipedia; Max Raisin, Great Jews I Have Known (1952), pp. 143–52; Carl Edwin Lindgren, "Gottard Deutsch" American National Biography Online Feb. 2000 (Oxford University Press)