Harry Austryn Wolfson

Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887 – September 19, 1974), born Zvi Hershel ben Mendel Wolfson, was an American philosopher and historian at Harvard University, where he became the first chair of a Jewish Studies Center in the United States. Best known for his seminal work on the Jewish philosopher Philo, Wolfson also produced major studies on Crescas and Spinoza, examined Averroes and Maimonides in the context of medieval and early modern thought, and wrote on the Kalam, the Church Fathers, and the foundations of Western religion. He aimed to bridge Jewish philosophy with Christian philosophy and Islamic philosophy. As the first Judaica scholar to spend his entire career at a top university, Wolfson embodied the ambitions of the 19th-century Wissenschaft des Judentums (science of Judaism, or Jewish studies) movement.