Alexander Marx

Born in Elberfeld, Germany, son of George Marx, a banker, and Gertrud Marx-Simon, a published poet. Alexander Marx grew up in Königsberg (East Prussia). He spent a year in a Prussian artillery regiment where he excelled in horsemanship. Later he studied at the University of Berlin and at the Rabbiner-Seminar (Berlin), marrying in 1905 Hannah the daughter of R' David Zvi Hoffmann, rector of the Seminar. In 1903, Marx accepted Solomon Schechter's invitation to teach history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and be its librarian. {{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marx-alexander|title=Alexander Marx|year=2007|access-date=23 June 2024|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library}} Marx came to Jerusalem in the 1950s to give Ben Gurion the prize from the J.T.S.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} His siblings include Moses Marx, another librarian,{{Cite web |title=Moses Marx |website=Oxford Reference |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100137741?rskey=CnoAki&result=2 |access-date=April 20, 2022}} and Esther Marx, wife of S.Y. Agnon.{{Cite journal|url = http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-01825.html|title = Alexander Marx|last = Schmelzer|first = Menahem|date = 2000|journal = American National Biography Online|doi = 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0801825|access-date = 2016-01-22|url-access = subscription}}

Marx published articles in many languages and was at home in both classical and Semitic languages. Marx contributed monographs and articles to journals on a wide variety of subjects, published two volumes of collected essays (Studies in Jewish History and Booklore (1944); Essays in Jewish Biography (1947)), and with Max L. Margolis wrote A History of the Jewish people (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1927, 1962). This pioneering work, stressed economic and social life, organization and legal status. It offers the reader a soundly researched, authoritative, and objective Jewish history in one volume.

In later years he also served as a member of the publications committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.

The Jewish Theological Seminary Library on his arrival in 1903 contained 5,000 volumes and 3 manuscripts. At his death it possessed 165,000 books and over 9,000 Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic, and Yiddish manuscripts, comprising the largest Judaica collection in the world. Much of Marx's research in early Jewish printing remains unpublished.{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/prof-alexander-marx-honored-at-jewish-theological-seminary-on-70th-birthday |title=Prof. Alexander Marx Honored at Jewish Theological Seminary on 70th Birthday |date=January 30, 1948 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |access-date=September 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925155627/https://www.jta.org/archive/prof-alexander-marx-honored-at-jewish-theological-seminary-on-70th-birthday |archive-date=September 25, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://digitalcollections.jtsa.edu/islandora/object/jts%3A405286 |title=Alexander Marx Papers |website=Jewish Theological Seminary |access-date=September 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925155822/https://digitalcollections.jtsa.edu/islandora/object/jts%3A405286 |archive-date=September 25, 2022}}

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Category:1878 births

Category:1953 deaths

Category:American librarians

Category:German emigrants to the United States

Category:19th-century German Jews

Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism

Category:Jewish Theological Seminary of America faculty

Category:Prussian Army personnel

Category:Writers from Königsberg

Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni

Category:Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America

Category:Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary alumni

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