SHOYEL KHAYES (SAUL CHAJES, CHAYES)

SHOYEL KHAYES (SAUL CHAJES, CHAYES) (May 15, 1884-1935)

            He was born in Brod (Brody), Galicia, the son of the Brod rabbi, Yitskhok Khayes, and the brother of Tsvi-Hirsh Khayes and the rabbi, Dr. Perets Khayes.  After the outbreak of WWI, he moved to Vienna, became an assistant librarian at the Vienna Community Library, for many years worked with Dr. Bernhard Wachstein there, and compiled a bibliography of the latter’s writings—Bibliographie der Schriften Bernhard Wachsteins (Vienna, 1933)—which was published on the thirtieth anniversary of Wachstein’s work in the Vienna Community Library.  Among his publications: “Der ershter protokol funem vilner kool in yor tkm״d (1784)” (The first protocol of the Vilna community of 1784), Historishe shriftn [fun yivo] (Historical writings [from YIVO]) (Vilna) 1 (1929), pp. 707-16; and “Nemen fun galitsishe erter in yidishe mekoyrim un inem folks-loshn” (Place names in Galicia in Yidish sources and in the vernacular), Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) (Vilna) 3 (1934), pp. 229-42.  His major work was: Otsar beduye hashem (Thesaurus Pseudonymorum; Treasury of pseudonyms), a handbook of pseudonyms of Hebrew and Yiddish authors (Vienna: Glanz, 1933), 335 pp. and 66 pp.; in this work he recorded 5145 pseudonyms (including the initials of authors) of roughly 2850 writers and journalists, with a preface by the author and an introduction by Dr. B. Wachstein.  “This is not only the most important work on the topic,” wrote Zalmen Reyzen, “but virtually the only one with such a scope….  He has completed a work that secures him an honored place in Jewish bibliography.”  He died in Vienna.

Sources: Gershon Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934); Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 8.2 (1935), p. 162; Zalmen Reyzen, in Yivo-bleter 13.7-8 (1938); Reyzen, in Vakhshteyn-bukh, zamlbukh tsum ondenk fun bernhard vakhshteyn 1868-1935 (Wachstein volume, collection in memory of Bernhard Wachstein, 1868-1935) (Vilna: YIVO, 1939), pp. 585-618; Yivo-biblyografye 1925-1941 (YIVO bibliography, 1925-1941) (New York: YIVO, 1941), nos. 361, 2135; Dr. M. Naygreshl, in Fun noentn over (New York) 1 (1955), p. 393.

Leyzer Ran