SHLOYME-ASHER BIRNBOYM (SALOMO, SOLOMON A. BIRNBAUM)

SHLOYME-ASHER BIRNBOYM (SALOMO, SOLOMON A. BIRNBAUM) (December 24, 1891-December 28, 1989)

He was born in Vienna, son of Dr. Nosn Birnboym (Nathan Birnbaum).  He attended public secondary school in Vienna and Czernowitz.  Over the years 1908-1910 he was living with his father in Czernowitz, after which they returned to Vienna where he studied architecture.  He was drafted into the Austrian army in 1915.  In 1916 he was severely wounded on the Italian front and was demobilized in 1919.  He studied in field of Oriental studies in Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, and Würzburg.  He received his doctorate in 1921.  Over the years 1922-1933, he worked as a lecturer in Yiddish at Hamburg University.  In 1933 he emigrated to London.  In 1936 he was working as a lecturer in Hebrew Paleography at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; in 1939 he was simultaneously a lecturer in Yiddish at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the same university.  The beginning of his literary-scholarly activities: in 1907 (age 16) he published (in German) his first work, a translation from Yiddish, in the weekly Neue Zeitung (New Newspaper) in Vienna; his first six philological writings were published in 1913-1914 in Die Freistatt (The Refuge) in Berlin; his first article in Yiddish, “Vi azoy yidn lebn in ashkenaz” (How Jews live in Germany), published in Yidishes tageblat (Jewish Daily News) in New York on July 27, 1921.  He published articles about Yiddish and other Jewish languages, about Hassidism, and about Judaism generally.  He wrote articles, reviews and translations for: Der yud (The Jew), Der flaker (The Flame), Yeshurun  (Jeshurun), Der moment (Moment), Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter (Orthodox youth pages), Darkenu (Our Way), Yidishe filologye (Yiddish philology), Dos yidishe tageblat (The Jewish Daily News); also a chapter in Yubileum-bukh tsum 60tn geboyrntog fun dr. nosn birnboym (Jubilee volume for the 60^th birthday of Dr. Nosn Birnboym) (1925)—all published in Warsaw; Di yidishe shtime (The Jewish Voice), Dos naye folksblat (The New People’s Newspaper), Beys yankev zhurnal (Beys-Yankev Journal), Kinder-gortn (Kindergarten), and Panu derekh (Clear the Way)—in Lodz; Undzer vort (Our Word) in Lemberg/Lvov; Oylim-bleter (Pages for the “Ascenders Movement”) in Kołomyja; Filologishe shriftn (Philological Writings), Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO), and Dos vort (The word)—in Vilna; Yidishe lebn (Jewish Life) in Kovno; Dos yidishe vort (The Yiddish Word) in Antwerp; Kiem (Survival) in Paris; Yidish London (Jewish London) and Di vokhntsaytung (The Weekly Newspaper)—in London; Haderekh (The Way) in Tel Aviv; Yidishes tageblat, Der tog (The Day), Yudishe gazetten (Jewish Gazette), Der oyfkum (The Awakening), and Afn shvel (At the Threshold)—in New York.  Birnboym produced about 120 studies and articles on the Yiddish language in the period between the two world wars, and these were published in the best German-language Yiddish periodicals that appeared in Czernowitz, Vienna, Berlin, Halle (Salle), Breslau, and Rotterdam, among others; in English-language periodicals and encyclopedias published in Europe, England and the United States before and after WWII; and in the Spanish-language Judaica in Buenos Aires, among others.

Among his books: Praktische Grammatik der Jiddischen Sprache (Practical grammar of the Yiddish language) (Vienna, 1918, 2011, 188 pp., revised, enlarged editions 1966, 1979, 1984, 1988); Leben und Worte des Balschemm, nach Chassidischen Schriften (The Life and Words of the Baal-Shem, following Hassidic writings) (Berlin, 1920), 127 pp.; Tiko brahes veg tsu got (Tycho Brahe’s Path to God) (Berlin, 1921), 296 pp., a translation from the German of Max Brod’s novel Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott; Bilder fun erets-yisroel (Pictures from the Land of Israel) (Berlin, 1921), 111 pp., a translation of Davis Trietsch’s Bilder aus Palaestina; his Ph.D. dissertation, Das hebräische und aramäische Element in der jiddischen Sprache (The Hebrew and Aramaic element in the Yiddish language) (Leipzig, 1922), 56 pp.  Among his translations: Schlojmale, a rendering of Mendele’s Shloyme reb khayims (Solomon, son of R. Chaim) into German (1924), 263 pp. repr. (1962, 2019); Die Mähre, a rendering of Mendele’s Di klyatshke (The Mare) into German (1924), 216 pp.; Der Wunschring, a rendering of Mendele’s Dos vintshfingerl (The Wishing Ring) into German (1925), 268 pp. (repr. 1961, 2020)—all three works were originally published by Welt Verlag in Berlin.  He translated from German, together with the author, Dr. Nosn Birnboym’s Vom Freigeist zum Gläubigen to Fun an apikoyres gevorn a maymen (Warsaw, 1927), 32 pp.  (translated into English as “From Freethinker to Believer” in: Lucy Dawidowicz: The Golden Tradition, New York, 1967). Other books/publications include: Yidishkeyt un loshn (Jewishness and language) (Warsaw, 1930), 117 pp.; Geule fun loshn (Redemption through language) (Lodz, 1931), 15 pp.; contributions on Jewish and Yiddish subjects to Der Grosse Herder [Lexikon] (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1931-1935), approx. 90 articles.  The Life and Sayings of the Baal Shem, English translation by his wife Irene R. Birnbaum of his Leben und Worte des Balschemm (New York, 1933), 120 pp.; Yidish, verterbikhl fun oysleyg, gramatishn min, beygung un vort-klas, mit di neytikste klolim fun oysleyg (Yiddish, a small dictionary of spelling, grammatical gender, declension, and parts of speech, with the most essential rules of spelling) (Lodz, 1932), 54 pp.; “Di historye fun di alte U-klangen in yidish” (The history of old U-sounds in Yiddish) Yivo-bleter 6.1 (1934), pp. 25-60; Glaykht oys a veg (Make Level the Road) (Lodz, 1937), 44 pp., transl. from Nosn Birnboym’s original German: “Rufe”; Dokumentn mikoyakh dem bagayn zikh mit daytshe birger in daytshland (transl. from Papers Concerning the Treatment of German Nationals in Germany, 1938-1939, presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Parliament by Command of his Majesty, published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office (London, 1941), 47 pp.; Dos gerangl fun britanye (transl. from The Battle of Britain) (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1942); Yiddish Phrase Book (London: Linguaphone Institute for the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, 1945), 87 pp.;  “Yidish-numer” (Yiddish issue) of Beys yankev zhurnal (Sivan, 1931); Et laasot, geklibene ksovim fun nosn birnboym (It’s Time to Act, selected writings of Nosn Birnboym), edited with a genealogy by S. Birnboym (Lodz, 1938), 240 pp.

Among his pseudonyms: Asher, Bar-nash, Sh., Sh”A, Shaab (Sh-A-B), Shab (Sh-B), Sh-B-N. Among other places, he lived in Vienna, Hamburg, London and Liverpool (1933-1970), Toronto (1970-89).

[N.B. As extraordinary as the above record indicates—which is far from exhaustive—Shloyme Birnboym went on to write many more works in English, Yiddish, and German, primarily in the fields of Yiddish philology and other Jewish languages, and in Hebrew paleography.  A very few of these are listed below. Some works were published posthumously.  This entry was enormously enhanced with input from David Birnbaum, Nathan & Solomon Birnbaum Archives, Toronto (JAF)] 

Die jiddische Sprache: ein kurzer Űberblick und Texte aus acht Jahrhunderten (The Yiddish Language: A Short Survey of Eight Hundred Years) (Hamburg 1974), 141 pp., greatly enlarged editions 1986, 1997; Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar (Toronto, 1979), 399 pp., 2^nd enlarged edition 2016, 447 pp. David and Eleazar Birnbaum, Kalman Weiser, Jean Baumgarten eds; Solomon A./Salomo Birnbaum: A Lifetime of Achievement/Ein Leben für die Wissenschaft. Vol.I Linguistics (mainly Yiddish), 540 pp., Vol II Palaeography, 458 pp., Erika Timm, Eleazar Birnbaum, David Birnbaum, eds. (Berlin, Boston, 2011). Contains 62 scholarly papers, a number of them previously unpublished, dating from ca. 1926-1987. Vol I also contains a full bibliography with 235 entries, dating from 1907-2004.  Paleographical works: The Qumran (Dead Sea) Scrolls and Palaeography (New Haven: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1952), 52 pp.; The Hebrew Scripts (London, 1954-1957), 2 vols, 183, 160 pp.; plus approximately 55 academic papers.

Sources: S. Wininger, ed., Grosse Jüdische National-biographie (Czernowitz, 1925), vol. I; Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Jüdisches Lexikon (Berlin, 1927), vol. 1; Encyclopedia Judaica (Berlin, 1928), vol. 4; Entsiklopediya kolelit (General encyclopedia) (Tel Aviv, 1935), vol. 2; Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1944), vol. 2; Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), vol. 5 (New York, 1944); Maks Vaynraykh, Shtaplen (Rungs) (Berlin, 1923); Y. L. Orleon, in Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter 15 (Warsaw, 1931); A. Shindler, in Beys yankev zhurnal 96 (Lodz, 1933).