Joseph M. Baumgarten

Who was Joseph M. Baumgarten?

Joseph M. Baumgarten was a Semitic scholar known for his knowledge in the field of Jewish legal texts from biblical law to Mishnaic law and including the legal texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Baumgarten immigrated to the United States with his family in 1939 as a result of the Anschluss, Germany's occupation of Austria in 1938. In 1950, he was ordained a rabbi at Mesifta Torah Vodaath, a prominent Brooklyn yeshiva. He married Naomi Rosenberg in 1953.

Baumgarten started his studies in the field of mathematics with a B.A. cum laude from Brooklyn College. It was a chance meeting at Johns Hopkins with William Foxwell Albright that caused him to change direction, eventually being awarded a Ph.D. in Semitic studies in 1954. His dissertation was entitled “The Covenant Sect and the Essenes.” From 1952 to 1957 he remained at Johns Hopkins teaching Aramaic. In 1953 he began his long association with Baltimore Hebrew College. He also took on the role of rabbi to the Bnai Jacob Congregation in 1959. Throughout his life he was a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, a major organization of Orthodox rabbis.

Prof. Baumgarten served as visiting professor at Towson State College, University of Maryland, and the University of the Negev in Israel. He was also in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990 and again in 2001. He was a fellow at the Annenberg Institute in Philadelphia in 1992-93.