Moses Hadas (June 25, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia – August 17, 1966) was an American teacher, a classical scholar, and a translator of numerous works from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German.
Life Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training."The Many Lives of Moses Hadas by Rachel Hadas" He earned a rabbinical degree (1926) from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, NY and earned his MA (1925) and PhD (1930) in classics at Columbia University, NY. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages.
His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There he bucked the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right.
He embraced television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape. Early in 1966, Hadas delivered four lectures on Hebraism and Hellenism at the 92nd St Y in New York City.
Moses Hadas had four children, Jane, David, Elizabeth and Rachel Hadas. With his first wife, he had a son David Hadas (1931–2004), a professor of English and Religious Studies at Washington University; and Jane Streusand.
Hadas is credited with two celebrated witticisms:
- "This book fills a much-needed gap."
- "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it."
Selected works Sextus Pompey. 1930 Book of delight, by Joseph ben Meir Zabara; translated by Moses Hadas; with an introduction by Merriam Sherwood. 1932 History of Greek literature. 1950 History of Latin literature. 1952. Greek poets. 1953 Ancilla to classical reading. 1954 Oedipus. translated with an introd. by Moses Hadas. 1955 History of Rome, from its origins to 529 A.D., as told by the Roman historians. 1956 Thyestes. Translated, with an introduction by Moses Hadas. 1957 Stoic philosophy of Seneca; essays and letters of Seneca.. 1958 Hellenistic culture: fusion and diffusion. 1959 Humanism: the Greek ideal and its survival. 1960 Essential works of Stoicism. 1961 Old wine, new bottles; a humanist teacher at work. 1962 Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Modern abridgment, 1962 Hellenistic literature. 1963 Style the repository. 1965 Heroes and gods; spiritual biographies in antiquity, by Moses Hadas and Morton Smith. 1965 Introduction to classical drama. Foreword by Alvin C. Eurich. 1966 Living tradition. 1967 Solomon Maimon, an autobiography / edited and with a preface by Moses Hadas. 1975
Discography During the fifties, Hadas recorded several albums of Latin and Greek works on Folkways Records.Hadas Discography at Smithsonian Folkways
The Story of Virgil's Aeneid: Introduction and Readings in Latin (and English) by Professor Moses Hadas (1955) The Latin Language: Introduction and Reading in Latin (and English) by Professor Moses Hadas of Columbia University (1955) Plato on the Death of Socrates: Introduction with Readings from the Apology and the Phaedo in Greek & in English trans. (1956) Caesar: Readings in Latin and English by Professor Moses Hadas (1956) Cicero: Commentary and Readings in Latin and English by Moses Hadas (1956) Longus - Daphnis and Chloe: Read by Moses Hadas from His Translation (1958)
References
External links Youtube Recording of Hellenism & Hebraism: The First Encounter, with Moses Hadas (1966) Lecture by Moses Hadas at The 92nd St Y, New York City, 1966 Youtube Recording of Hellenism & Hebraism: The First Encounter, with Moses Hadas, 1966 Part 2 Youtube Recording of Hellenism & Hebraism: The First Encounter, with Moses Hadas, 1966 Part 3 https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8754-hadas-moses "The Many Lives of Moses Hadas" by Rachel Hadas, Columbia University Alumni Magazine, Fall 2001 - Columbia University Finding aid to Moses Hadas papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.