Cecil Roth

Cecil Roth (5 March 1899 – 21 June 1970)[1][2] FRSL FRHistS was an English historian.

In childhood, Cecil received a traditional Jewish religious education, including studying Hebrew with Jacob Mann.

[1][4] In 1928 he married Irene Rosalind Davis[4] and lived off freelance writing until returning to Oxford as Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies from 1939 to 1964.

[4][3][6] The couple were enthusiastic collectors of Judaism-related manuscripts and objets d'art, selling substantial collections of the former to the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds in 1961, and of the latter to the Beth Tzedec Synagogue Museum in Toronto.

[3] On his retirement from Oxford in 1964, at the invitation of Joseph H. Lookstein, Roth became a visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, moving to Jerusalem.