Fritz Bamberger was a German Jewish Scholar, educator and magazine editor who directed the school system for the education of Jews in pre- World War II, was the editor-in-chief of Coronet starting in 1942, and taught and wrote in the areas of philosophy and intellectual history.
Life in Germany (1902-1939)
Bamberger grew up in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. He studied philosophy and Oriental languages at the University of Berlin, and was awarded a doctorate in 1923 at the age of 21. Bamberger also studied at and graduated from the Hochschule die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he subsequently taught philosophy from 1933 to 1934. From 1926 to 1933 he was a member of the Forschungsinstitut of the Akademie fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, working on books about Maimonides and Gabirol, and serving as one of the editors of the "Akademie edition" of Moses Mendelssohn's Collected Works. After Hitler's rise in Germany, Bamberger organized a system of schools from kindergarten to college for Jewish students forced from the public schools. In 1934 he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Education for Jews in Berlin and President of the Jewish Teachers College,
In January 1939, after having been arrested and briefly held by the Nazi government, Bamberger and his family emigrated to Chicago, Ill. From 1939 to 1942 he taught philosophy and comparative literature he taught at the College of Jewish Studies and the University of Chicago. In 1942 Bamberger left academia for Esquire, Inc., where he subsequently became editor-in-chief of Coronet magazine and thereafter executive director of Esquire magazines. In 1962 Bamberger resigned from Esquire to return to the academic life, becoming Assistant to the President and Professor of Intellectual History at the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. In 1979 he retired from the college. During his life, Bamberger created the major collection of works by and about Spinoza, which is now at the library of Hebrew Union College-JIR in Jerusalem Till his death in 1984 he served as a vice president of the Leo Baeck Institute and vice chairman of the North American Board of the World Union of Progressive Judaism.
Personal life
In 1933, Bamberger married Kate Schwabe, a violinist. They had two children, Michael and Gabrielle. Kate died in 1952. Bamberger married Maria Nussbaum in 1963.
Selected Publications and Writings
1924. Untersuchungen zur Entstehung der Wertproblems in der Philosophie des 19. Jahrhunderts
