Shadal

R. Samuel David Luzzatto — Shadal (1800-1865) — was the leading Italian Jewish scholar of the 19th century and one of the founding voices of Italian Wissenschaft des Judentums. Born in Trieste, he served from 1829 until his death as a professor at the Collegio Rabbinico of Padua — the principal modern rabbinical seminary of the Italian-Sephardic world.

His commentaries on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and Jeremiah marry rigorous philology with deep traditional learning; his Mehkarei haYahadut is a foundational collection of Italian-Jewish-history essays. He defended traditional Judaism against Spinozism and early Reform while pioneering modern scholarly methods, and was a major influence on Italian, French, and English Jewish thought into the 20th century.