Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany

Abraham A. Fraenkel was a world-renowned mathematician in pre-Second World War Germany, whose work on set theory was fundamental to the development of modern mathematics. A friend of Albert Einstein, he knew many of the era’s acclaimed mathematicians personally. He moved to Israel (then Palestine under the British Mandate) in the early 1930s. In his autobiography Fraenkel describes his early years growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Germany and his development as a mathematician at the beginning of the twentieth century. This memoir, originally written in German in the 1960s, has now been translated into English, with an additional chapter covering the period from 1933 until his death in 1965 written by the editor, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield.

Fraenkel describes the world of mathematics in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, its origins and development, the systems influencing it, and its demise. He also paints a unique picture of the complex struggles within the world of Orthodox Jewry in Germany. In his personal life, Fraenkel merged these two worlds during periods of turmoil including the two world wars and the establishment of the state of Israel.

Including a new foreword by Menachem Magidor

Foreword to the 1967 German edition by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel