Morris Ginsberg

Morris Ginsberg FBA (14 May 1889 – 31 August 1970) was a British sociologist, who played a key role in the development of the discipline. He served as editor of The Sociological Review in the 1930s and later became the founding chairman of the British Sociological Association in 1951 and its first President (1955–1957). He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1942 to 1943, and helped draft the UNESCO 1950 statement titled The Race Question.

Biography

He was born in Kelmė, a small town in the Province of Kaunas in Lithuania (at the time occupied by the Russian Empire). He was given an education considered good according to the standards adopted by a small, isolated and intensely religious little community. His knowledge of Hebrew and religious principles was adequate but of secular learning he was absolutely ignorant.

At the age of thirteen he was sent away from home to Telšiai and then to Vilijampolė, where were situated two of the well known Yeshivot or academies for the study of Talmud. There he remained until the age of 15 and studied rabbinical lore with great zeal.