Isadore Twersky

Rabbi
Isadore Twersky
Personal
Born
Isadore Asher Twersky

(1930-09-10)10 September 1930
Died10 December 1997(1997-12-10) (aged 67)
Boston
ReligionJudaism
NationalityAmerican
SpouseAtarah (née Soloveitchik)
Children3
Alma materHarvard University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
PositionRabbi
SynagogueCongregation Beth David
ResidenceBrookline, Massachusetts

Isadore Twersky (also known as Yitzhak Asher Twersky, October 9, 1930 – October 12, 1997) was an Orthodox rabbi and Hasidic Rebbe, and university professor who held the position as Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University, a chair previously held by Harry Austryn Wolfson. Twersky was an internationally recognized authority on Rabbinic literature and Jewish philosophy. He was especially known as an international expert in the writings and influence of the 12th-century Jewish legalist and philosopher Maimonides, and Abraham ben David, the Rabad of Posquieres.

His best-known works are, An Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), and the more popular anthology, A Maimonides Reader, as well as Rabad of Posquieres: A Twelfth-Century Talmudist, which was based on his doctorate work. He was the editor of the Harvard Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature (in three volumes), won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989, and was a fellow of both the American Academy for Jewish Research and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. According to Hacker (2005), Twersky can best be characterized as a "historian of ideas and a researcher of the intellectual history of the Jews," and would presumably have considered himself as such.