Michael Levi Rodkinson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Levi Rodkinson (1845-1904) known for being the first to translate the Babylonian Talmud to English.

Born with the surname Frumkin, he is the son of Alexander Sender Frumkin and half brother of Israel Dov Bär Frumkin, the editor of The Havatzeleth newspaper in Jerusalem, Arieh Tzvi Hirsch Frumkin and Guishe Frumkin-Navon. His grandfather was Aaron ha-Levi ben Moses of Staroselye, so he grew up in a Hasidic Habad atmosphere.

He changed his name to Rodkinson for a reason unknown, maybe after his mother's name "Rada". He lived in Germany for a period of time where he published some of his books, then he moved to the U.S. and settled in N.Y. there he worked as a publisher. Among his works is a translation of the Babylonian Talmud to English that was not completed and that was criticized by his enemies who were a few. Michael Levy was named after his grandfather, Rabbi Aaron Halevy Horowitz who was a prominent rabbi of the Habbad movement, who created his own Hassidic group in Usha and then in Starosjle. Michael spent a lot of time among Hassidim in his childhood and collected many stories that he compiled later into books that were amongst the first to tell stories in Hebrew and Yiddish and not just explanations of the Jewish law.

Michael Levy married three times; one of his children was Max Rodkinson, who was a famous actor of the Yiddish theater in New York. He changed his name to Rudolph Marks because his father did not want him to use the Rodkinson name as a Yiddish actor. After a few years of acting he left the stage and became a lawyer, taking back his original name.