GROSS, HEINRICH:

German rabbi; born at Szenicz, Hungary, Nov. 6, 1835; pupil in rabbinical literature of Judah Aszod. After graduating from the Breslau seminary and from the University of Halle (Ph.D. 1866; his thesis on Leibnitz obtaining the university prize), 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 great work "Gallia Judaica." In 1869 he went to Berlin, where he associated much with Zunz, whose methods of research he admired and adopted. In 1870 he was called to the rabbinate of Gross-Strelitz, Silesia; and since 1875 he has occupied the rabbinate of Augsburg.

Gross's activity in the domain of literary history, especially of that of the French Jews of the Middle Ages, has been very extensive. His "Gallia Judaica" (Paris, 1897), which deals with the medieval geography and literary history of the Jews of France, has become a standard work. Gross has also enriched the Jewish scientific periodicals with many valuable contributions, which of themselves constitute important works. Of these the most noteworthy are: "Abraham ben David aus Posquières, ein Literarhistorischer Versuch," in "Monatsschrift," 1873-74; "Zur Gesch. der Juden in Arles," ib. 1878, 1879, 1880; "Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi, ein Literarhistorischer Versuch," ib. 1885, 1886; "Jehudah Sir Leon aus Paris: Analekten," in "Magazin," 1877, 1878, iv. 174, v. 179; "Etude sur Simson ben Abraham de Sens," in "R. E. J." 1883.

Gross is also the author of "Lehrbuch der Israelitischen Religion für die Oberen Klassen der Mittelschulen."

S. I. Br.
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