Dr. Ephraim A. Speiser, who was among recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowships, is one of the foremost Orientalists in the country. He is said to be one of the two persons in the world who understand the Hittite language.
Dr. Speiser was awarded a Fellowship to make philological and historical investigations of the Mitanni-Hurri peoples of ancient Mesopotamia.
Dr. Speiser was born in Lemberg, Poland, in 1902, where he was educated at the Gymnasium and the University of Lemberg. The World War interrupted his studies, and he served four years in the army. He then came to the United States.
In 1921 he entered the University of Pennsylvania, winning a master of arts degree in 1923 and becoming a doctor of philosophy in 1924, at the age of 22.
In addition to his investigations to be made under the Guggenheim award, Dr. Speiser is to serve as annual professor at the American School of Oriental Research in Bagdad.
Dr. Speiser has been awarded the fellowship of the Harrison Research Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania, the last two years. He has been collaborating with Professor G. A. Barton and Professor Edward Chicra, and with the latter translated day tablets found in Mesopotamian which revealed that many of the non-Semitic characteristics of the Jews are traceable to the infusion in Biblical times of blood from a people known as the Hurri, the Horites of the Bible. Dr. Speiser read a paper on this discovery before the recent meeting of the American Oriental Society.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
