LEHMANN, JOSEPH

LEHMANN, JOSEPH (1843–1917), French rabbi, director of the Séminaire Israélite de France (from 1906: Ecole Rabbinique). He was born in Belfort, studied at the Séminaire Israélite, and in 1867 was appointed to the rabbinate in Paris, where he taught Talmud at the seminary's preparatory school. Later he taught at the seminary itself, directing it from 1890 until his death. His greatest interest was in the historical content of the talmudic texts. His religious opinions, typical of those of the French rabbinate of the period, tended toward a liberal interpretation which aimed at social assimilation to the environment. He contributed several articles to the Revue des Etudes Juives and published a sermon in L'Homme et Dieu (1869). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Bauer, L'Ecole Rabbinique de France (1930), 158–76, 185, 200; Catane, in: REJ, 125 (1966), 51–61. (Moshe Catane)