Gottheil, Richard James Horatio, 1862–1936, American Orientalist and Semitic scholar, b. Manchester, England; son of Gustav Gottheil. He taught Semitic languages at Columbia from 1886 and was head of the Oriental department of the New York Public Library from 1896. An ardent Zionist, he was interested in the rebuilding of Palestine and was head (1909–10) of the American School of Archaeology at Jerusalem. His contributions to the study of Syriac are noteworthy. His works include The Syriac Grammar of Mar Elia of Zobha (1887); The Syriac-Arabic Glosses of Isha bar Ali (1908–28); many articles in The Jewish Encyclopedia, of which he was an editor; and a biography of his father (1936).
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