HYMAN HURWITZ

Hyman Hurwitz (1770–1844) was a learned Jew who became first professor of Hebrew at University College, London. He was born in Poznań, Poland in 1770, came to England about 1797[1] and conducted a private academy for Jews at Highgate, where he estblished a close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and corresponded with him. Coleridge once described Hurwitz as "the first Hebrew and Rabbinical Scholar in the Kingdom".[1] In 1828, on Coleridge's recommendation,[1] he was elected professor of the Hebrew language and literature at University College, London. His inaugural lecture was published. He died on 18 July 1844.[2] Hurwitz was buried in the Brady Street Cemetery near Whitechapel in London's East End.[3]