JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

irnbaum, philip
to these ideas was the journal Der Aufstieg (1930–1933), many
of whose pages were written by himself.
At the advent of Hitler (1933) he left Berlin where he had
lived most of the time since 1911, and settled in the Hague-Scheveningen,
where he published a journal Der Ruf (1934–1937).
A series of articles were republished in a booklet, Rufe (1936),
published in Antwerp, his “testament to the Jewish People.”
“The great ideal is to create the new Jew, based in the Torah,
near to nature and to God, creative, harmonious, happy.” There
are three books of selections from his writings: from his secular
period the important collection, Ausgewaehlte Schriften zur
juedischen Frage (2 vols, 1910), from his early religious phase,
Um die Ewigkeit (1920) and from the later one, Et La’asot (1938,
in Yid.). His son, Solomon *Birnbaum edited a short selection
of his religious works, The Bridge (1956). His other sons were
Menachem *Birnbaum and Uriel *Birnbaum.
Bibliography: S. Birnbaum, in: L. Jung (ed.), Men of the
Spirit (1964), 519–49; J. Fraenkel, in: JSOS, 16 (1954), 115–34; A.E. Kaplan
and M. Landau (eds.), Vom Sinn des Judentums (1925); Die Frei statt
(May and June 1914); A. Boehm, Die zionistische Bewegung, 1 (1935),
135–8; L. Hermann, Nathan Birnbaum (1914); Davar, Literary Supplement
(May 7, 1937); J. Fraenkel, in: Shivat Ẓiyyon, 2–3 (1953), 275–99;
Kressel, ibid., 4 (1956), 55–99; L.S. Dawidowicz (ed.), The Golden Tradition
(1967), index. Add. Bibliography: J.A. Fishman, Ideology,
Society & Language – The Odyssey of Nathan Birnbaum (1987); “The
Metamorphosis of Nathan Birnbaum,” in: R. Wistrich, The Jews of
Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph (1989); J. Fraenkel, “Mathias Archer’s
Fight for the Crown of Zion,” in: Jewish Studies, 16/2 (1954); J.A.
Fishman, “Nathan Birnbaum’s View of American Jewry,” in: Yiddish,
Turning to Life (1991); Kuehntopf-Gentz, “Nathan Birnbaum” (Diss.
Tuebingen, 1990); M. Gelber, Melancholy Pride (2000).
BIRNBAUM, PHILIP (1904–1988), U.S. author and translator.
Birnbaum was born in Zamowiec, Poland, and immigrated
to the United States in 1923. He attended Howard College
and completed a Ph.D. degree at Dropsie College. In 1942,
he published his dissertation, a critical, scientific edition of the
Arabic commentary of the Karaite Yefet Ben Ali, on the Book
of Hosea. Birnbaum’s edition of Yefet Ben Ali’s work was edited
from eight manuscripts and included an English language
introduction, a translation into Hebrew of the Arabic original,
and critical notes on the text.
But Birnbaum’s talent and lasting contribution was in
popularizing Jewish law and custom, and in translating synagogue
liturgy. His popular works included A Treasury of Judaism
(1957), A Book of Jewish Concepts (1975), The Concise
Jewish Bible (1977), and a selection of the Maimonides Code,
the Mishneh Torah (1944, 1967), with Hebrew and English
translation. Birnbaum was widely known and respected for
his fine translation and annotation of synagogue liturgy. His
editions of liturgy for daily prayer, Sabbath, festivals, and the
High Holidays became immensely popular, selling an estimated
300,000 copies. The Hebrew Publishing Company
described him, at his death, as “the most obscure bestselling
author.”
Birnbaum was a regular columnist and book reviewer for
the Hebrew-language weekly, Hadoar. He also served on the
board of directors of the Histadrut Ivrit b’America, an American
association for the promotion of Hebrew language and culture.
He also served for many years (1943–63) as principal of a Jewish
day school in Wilmington, Delaware, and directed Jewish
schools in Birmingham, Alabama, and Camden, New Jersey.
Bibliography: New York Times, B5 (March 22, 1988).
[Moshe Sherman (2nd ed.)]
BIRNBAUM, SOLOMON ASHER (1891–1989), Yiddish
philologist and Hebrew paleographer. Birnbaum was born
in Vienna, the son of Nathan *Birnbaum, and is the father
of Jacob Birnbaum, a key initiator of the U.S. Soviet Jewry
Movement. After World War I service, he specialized in Oriental
languages. Appointed lecturer in Yiddish at Hamburg
University (1922), he was the first in any university to hold a
teaching post for Yiddish. He emigrated to England (1933)
and then to Toronto (1970). He taught Hebrew paleography
at London University’s School of Oriental and African studies
(1936-57) and Yiddish at the School of Slavonic and East
European Studies (1939-58).
Birnbaum wrote over 150 major articles on Yiddish, other
Jewish languages, and Hebrew paleography, in German, Yiddish,
and later mostly in English. He wrote Praktische Grammatik
der jiddeschen Sprache (1918, 19662, 19793, 19844), the
first fully systematic Yiddish grammar, Die Yiddische Sprache
(1974, 19862), and Yiddish, A Survey and a Grammar (1979),
as well as Life and Sayings of the Baal Shem (1933). His Hebrew
Scripts (part 2, 1954-57, part 1, 1972), the first comprehensive
work on Hebrew paleography with hundreds of illustrations
and detailed paleographical examinations, charted the evolution
of Hebrew script. He wrote The Qumran (Dead Sea)
Scrolls and Paleography (1952). Due out in 2007 was S.A. Birnbaum,
A Lifetime of Achievement: 63 Jewish Linguistic and Paleographic
Studies, ed. C. Timm.
Bibliography: S. Hiley, “S.A. Birnbaum,” in: D.B. Kerler
(ed.), History of Yiddish Studies (1991); Rejzen, Leksikon (1956); J.
Spalek and S. Hawrylchak (eds.), Guide to Archival Materials of German-speaking
Emigration to U.S.…, 3/1 (1997).
BIRNBAUM, URIEL (1894–1956), poet and artist; son of
Nathan *Birnbaum. Born in Vienna, he began his career as
an artist and poet at a very early age as an autodidact. In 1911
the family moved to Berlin, where Uriel volunteered at the
“Berliner Sezession.” His graphic and literary output continued
throughout World War I, even after he was severely
wounded when fighting in the Austrian Army. His war experiences
found expression in a volume of sonnets, In Gottes Krieg
(1921). Like his father Nathan, Uriel returned to traditional Judaism
in 1913 and his favorite subject in poetry became trust
in God as the principle of human life. He chose to deal with
biblical history in order to demonstrate God’s relationship to
man and published several portfolios and volumes of lithographs
and paintings: Welkuntergang (1921), Das Buch Jona
716 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3