Heinrich Gross

Who is Heinrich Gross?

Heinrich Gross, writing also as Henri Gross, was a German rabbi. He was a pupil in rabbinical literature of Judah Aszod.

After graduating from the Breslau seminary and from the University of Halle, he was engaged as private teacher by Baron Horace Günzburg at Paris. During a residence of two years in that city Gross collected in the Bibliothèque Nationale the material for his work Gallia Judaica. In 1869 he went to Berlin, where he associated much with Leopold Zunz, whose methods of research he admired and adopted. In 1870 he was called to the rabbinate of Gross-Strelitz, Silesia. From 1875 he was rabbi of Augsburg.

Gross's activity in the domain of literary history, especially of that of the French Jews of the Middle Ages, was extensive. His Gallia Judaica, which deals with the medieval geography and literary history of the Jews of France, became a standard work.

Gross also enriched the Jewish scientific periodicals with valuable contributions. Of these the most noteworthy are:

⁕"Abraham ben David aus Posquières, ein Literarhistorischer Versuch," in "Monatsschrift," 1873-74