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Kahana (Kagan), Koppel

KAHANA (Kagan), KOPPEL (1895–1978), rabbinical scholar and authority on Jewish, Roman, and English law. Kahana, who was born in Eisiskes, Lithuania, studied at Lithuanian yeshivot and served as rabbi in Bialowieza and Rozanai, Poland. Before World War II, he went to Cambridge, where he studied law. From 1946 to 1968 he was lecturer in Talmud and codes at Jews' College, London, which before then had trained few rabbis. The new Rabbinical Diploma Course, introduced by the principal, Isidore *Epstein and conducted by Kahana, attracted to the college also some of its former students, raising a new generation of Anglo-Jewish rabbis, who were inspired by his teaching. Among his published writings are: Three Great Systems of Jurisprudence (1955), a comparative study of Jewish, Roman, and English Law; The Case for Jewish Civil Law in the Jewish State (1960); and The Theory of Marriage in Jewish Law (1966). Under the name of K. Kagan, he contributed articles to some of the leading American and English law reviews. Kahana represented the rare type of Lithuanian Gaon, who was acquainted with modern legal studies and whose contributions in this field were considerable.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.