Sir Israel Gollancz, FBA (13 July 1863[1] – 23 June 1930[2]) was a scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare.

As a Jew, Gollancz faced significant antisemitism in his life and career, which was reflected in his academic work through his recurrent interest in Shakespeare's representation of Jewishness in A Merchant of Venice.

[10] He also produced a translation in modern English of the important medieval Christian allegorical poem Pearl, which he theorized may have been the work of Ralph Strode.

[13] In the year of his death, the British Academy held a memorial lecture in his name, at which they unveiled a bust of Sir Israel.

[14] Despite this prestige, Gollancz seems to have been regarded by the succeeding generation of scholars in his field as part of an "old guard" prone to fancy and unscholarly conjecture.