Misplaced Pages

Sol Liptzin (July 27, 1901 – November 15, 1995) was a scholar, writer, and educator in Yiddish and German literature.

Life

Liptzin was born in Sataniv, Russian Empire, and moved to New York at the age of nine. He graduated from City College of New York and did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University. His doctoral advisor was Robert Herndon Fife.

His stay in Berlin interested him in the romantic movement in 19th-century German literature.

Starting in 1923, Liptzin taught at City College. From 1943 to 1958 he served as the chairman of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. He convinced college officials that Yiddish is a Germanic language laced with Hebrew and Russian, and that it should be taught as such in college.

He was active in Jewish affairs and was the honorary president of the Jewish Book Council of America, the editor of the Jewish Book Annual (1953–1956), departmental editor for German literature in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the National Chairman of the Jewish State Zionists of America, the Academic Secretary of YIVO, and President of the College Yiddish Association. He was a visiting professor at Yeshiva University from 1929 to 1940.

In 1962, he moved to Israel, where he taught at Tel Aviv University (1962–1963) and the Technion (1962–1966), where he founded the humanities program.

He was a founder of Bar-Ilan University and the Jerusalem University College and taught at both.

He died on 15 November 1995 in a hospital in Jerusalem.

Bibliography

• Shelley in Germany (1924)
• Lyric Pioneers of Modern Germany (1928)
• Arthur Schnitzler: Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought (1932)
• Historical Survey of German Literature (1936)
• Richard Beer-Hofmann (1936)
• Germany's Stepchildren (1944)
• Stories from Peretz (1947)
• Eliakum Zunser: Poet of His People
• The English Legend of Heinrich Heine (1954)
• The Flowering of Yiddish Literature (1963)
• The Jew in American Literature (1966)
• The Maturing of Yiddish Literature (1970)
• A History of Yiddish Literature (1972)
• Biblical Themes in World Literature (1985)

References

1. Social Security Death Index: Sol Liptzin
2. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (18 November 1995). "Solomon Liptzin, 94, Educator And Advocate of Yiddish Study". New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
3. ^ "Liptzin, Sol". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
4. Bakon, Shimon (Summer 1991). "Editorial Tribute in Honor of Professor Sol Liptzin" (PDF). Jewish Bible Quarterly. XIX (4).

• 1901 births
• 1995 deaths
• City College of New York alumni
• City College of New York faculty
• Columbia University alumni
• Yiddish-language literature
• Yeshiva University faculty
• Academic staff of Tel Aviv University
• Academic staff of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
• American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
• Ukrainian Jews
• American emigrants to Israel
• Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States