Fritz Bamberger (scholar)

Fritz Bamberger (7 January 1902 – 21 September 1984) was a German Jewish Scholar, educator and magazine editor who directed the school system for the education of Jews in pre- World War II, was the editor-in-chief of Coronet starting in 1942, and taught and wrote in the areas of philosophy and intellectual history.

Bamberger grew up in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

He studied philosophy and Oriental languages at the University of Berlin, and was awarded a doctorate in 1923 at the age of 21.

From 1926 to 1933 he was a member of the Forschungsinstitut (research institute) of the Akademie für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Academy for the Science of Judaism) in Berlin, working on books about Maimonides and Gabirol, and serving as one of the editors of the Akademieausgabe (Academy Edition) of a work on Moses Mendelssohn's collected writings (Moses Mendelssohn: Gesammelte Schriften).

After Hitler's rise in Germany, Bamberger organized a system of schools from kindergarten to college for Jewish students forced from the public schools.

Bamberger also studied at and graduated from the Hochschule die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he subsequently taught philosophy from 1933 to 1934.

In 1933, Bamberger married Kate Schwabe, a violinist.

In 1934 he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Education for Jews in Berlin and President of the Jewish Teachers College,

They had two children, Michael (1936) and Gabrielle (1938).

In January 1939, after having been arrested and briefly held by the Nazi government, Bamberger and his family emigrated to Chicago, Ill.

From 1939 to 1942 he taught philosophy and comparative literature at the College of Jewish Studies and the University of Chicago.

In 1942 Bamberger left academia for Esquire, Inc., where he subsequently became editor-in-chief of Coronet magazine and thereafter executive director of Esquire magazine.

Kate died in 1952.

In 1962 Bamberger resigned from Esquire to return to academic life, becoming Assistant to the President and Professor of Intellectual History at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York.

Bamberger married again: Maria Nussbaum in 1963.

In 1979 he retired.

During his life, Bamberger created a major collection of works by and about Spinoza, which is now at the library of the HUC-JIR campus in Jerusalem.

Till his death in 1984 he served as a vice president of the Leo Baeck Institute and vice chairman of the North American Board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

Fritz Bamberger Dies at 82; Was German Jewish Scholar, The New York Times, p. 13, September 24, 1984;

Entry for Bamberger, Fritz in 3 ENCYCLOPEDIA JUDAICA, 2d ed.

(2007), p. 102

Michael A. Meyer, Scholarship and Worldliness: The Life and Work of Fritz Bamberger in 58 Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 2013, (Oxford) 143–158;