Ludwig Blau (1861–1936)

Ludwig Blau, also known as Lajos Blau, was born to a Jewish family in Putnok, Hungary. He was educated at three different yeshivas. In 1880-1888, he was a student at the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest (Landesrabbinerschule), now the Budapest University of Jewish Studies). At the same time, he studied philosophy and Oriental Studies at the University of Budapest, where he earned a Ph.D. degree cum laude in 1887. While still a student, he was invited to teach at the Seminary, where he became a full professor in 1889. In 1914, he became the Seminary's director. For 40 years, he served as editor of the Hungarian Jewish Review (Magyar Zsidó Szemle), a quarterly journal devoted to Jewish scholarship. In 1902, he became president of the folklore section of the Jewish-Hungarian Literary Society. Blau was one of the most prolific writers and scholars of his era, contributing to almost every aspect of Jewish learning. He was a regular contributor to most of the Jewish and non-Jewish scholarly periodicals dedicated to theology and philology. He was among the first to recognize the importance of archaeological findings, and wrote pioneering studies making use of Greek papyri for the evaluation of Talmudic law.