Drachman, Bernard

American educator and rabbi; born in New York city June 27, 1861. He is a descendant of a rabbinical family, and was educated at the High School, Jersey City, N. J.; the Hebrew Preparatory School, and Columbia College, New York, whence he graduated in 1882. Continuing his studies in Europe, he entered the Breslau seminary, and matriculated at the University of that place, taking the degree of Ph.D. at Heidelberg (multa cum laude) in 1884. Drachman received his rabbinical diploma from Manuel Joel, rabbi at Breslau (1885). Returning to America, he first officiated as rabbi to the Oheb Sholom congregation in Newark, N. J. (1885-87). Next he accepted the office of rabbi to the Congregation Beth Israel Bikkur Cholim, New York city (1887-89), and later to that of the congregation Zichron Ephraim, of which he is still (1903) the incumbent. Drachman assisted Dr. Sabato Morais in founding the Jewish Theological Seminary (1886), and was appointed preceptor in Biblical exegesis, Hebrew grammar, and Jewish philosophy. In 1889 he was elected dean of the faculty, which position he held until the founding of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York in 1902, when Drachman accepted the office of instructor in Bible and Hebrew grammar and the appointment of acting reader in codes in that institution. To him was due the inception of the Jewish Endeavor Society.

Among his writings may be mentioned: "Die Stellung und Bedeutung des Jehudah Hajjug in der Geschichte der Hebräischen Grammatik" (Breslau, 1885), and "Neo-Hebraic Literature in America" (in the Seventh Biennial Report of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association, New York, 1900). Also he translated from the German "The Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel" by Samson Raphael Hirsch (New York, 1899).

A. F. H. V.