Senior Sachs

Senior Sachs (b. Kėdainiai, Kovno Governorate, June 17, 1816; d. Paris, November 18, 1892) was a Russo-French Hebrew scholar.

Senior was raised in Žagarė, Kovno Governorate, where his father, Tzemach Sachs, was appointed rabbi when Senior was one and one-half years old. Senior studied Hebrew and Talmud under his father's tutelage, and while still a boy, manifested a predilection for Hebrew literature. He became acquainted with Joshua Klein, parnas of the Kėdainiai community, who furnished him with Haskalah books, including the works of Erter. Erter's writings so impressed Sachs that he considered immediately moving to Brody in order to study under him, but Sach's early marriage, in accordance with the custom of that time, prevented him. Instead, Sachs studied for one year on a scholarship in the Wasilishok bet ha-midrash and taught for a year in Dubno before moving to Brody (ca. 1839). In Brody, Erter assisted Sachs in finding employment teaching Hebrew, and Sachs studied German and Syriac, and devoted the greater part of his time to reading scientific and philosophical works.

Sachs remained two years in Brody, and while there wrote an article in Hebrew on Russo-Hebrew scholars and on the education of the Jews in Russia; this he sent to Jost, who translated it into German, and published it in his Annalen (1840, Nos. 4-10), omitting, however, the author's signature. His parents having requested him to return home, Sachs set out on his journey, but, having no passport, was arrested on the Russian frontier. He was brought to Kremenets, where he was thrown into prison, remaining in confinement five months, when he was liberated through the efforts of Isaac Baer Levinsohn. Sachs stayed at Zhagory six months, when he was invited to teach at Raseiniai, where he remained till the end of 1843. At length he went to Berlin (1844), where he entered the university, attending particularly the lectures of Schelling and Althaus. In 1856 Sachs was invited to Paris by Baron Joseph Günzburg to become his private librarian and the tutor of his children.

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