RUDOLF GLANTS (GLANZ)

RUDOLF GLANTS (GLANZ) (December 21, 1892-July 17, 1978)

            Born in Vienna, Austria, he received a traditional Jewish education.  He studied worldly subject matter systematically in school—history, pedagogy, and law at Vienna University.  In 1918 he graduated from university and acquired the title of doctor of law and state science.  He devoted himself to Jewish history and philology.  He was a docent among the researchers at YIVO.  In 1938 he emigrated to the United States.  He published a great number of works in the scholarly publications of YIVO in Yiddish and in English.  From his youth he was ideologically attached to Labor Zionism.  He ran the archive of the Labor Zionist movement in America and published a number of treatises about it in Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York.  Among his more important writings: “Di oysforshung fun dem yidishn eygns in dem eltern hentshke-loshn” (Exploration into the properties of Yiddish in thieves’ cant), Filologishe shriftn (Philological writings) 2 (Vilna, 1928); “A barikht fun a ben-dor vegn der fayerlekher protsesye fun di proger yidn dem 24tn april 1741” (A report from a contemporary on the solemn procession of Prague Jews on April 24, 1741), Arkhiv far der geshikhte fun yidishn teater un drame (Archive of the history of Yiddish theater and drama) 1 (Vilna-New York, 1930); “Di untershte shikhtn fun daytshn yidntum in 18tn y”h” (The substratum of German Jewry in the eighteenth century), Yivo bleter (Pages from YIVO) 11.5 (Vilna, May 1937) (also published in brochure form with the title Di untershte shikhn fun yidishn folk in di amolike daytshe lender [The substratum of the Jewish people in the former German lands] [Vilna: YIVO, 1938], 16 pp. in the series “Organizatsye fun der yidisher visnshaft” [Organization of Jewish scholarship], no. 20); “Di aynvanderung fun di daytshe yidn biz der 80er yorn” (The immigration of German Jews until the 1880s), in Geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung in di fareynikte shtatn (History of the Jewish labor movement in the United States), edited by I. M. Cherikover, vol. 1 (New York: YIVO, 1943); “Der kamf kegn batkhonim un klezmorim in daytshland onheyb 19tn y”h” (The struggle against wedding entertainers and wedding bands in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century), Yivo-bleter 28.2 (New York, 1946); “Der kuk fun di ‘mokreykers’ af dem sotsyal matsev fun di yidishe imigrantn” (The view of the muckrakers of the social condition of Jewish immigrants), Yivo-bleter 38 (New York, 1954); and a great number of analytical studies of works on problems of Jewish history, sociology, and philology, published in Yivo-bleter.  He was living in New York until his death.  In a letter, dated March 27, 1955, Glants wrote that, aside from a few pieces in Idisher kemfer, “everything else I wrote in German and it was translated by others,” and that he did not consider himself a writer in Yiddish—and he was right.

Sources: Yivo-biblyografye 1925-1941 (YIVO bibliography, 1925-1941) (New York: YIVO, 1943); Yivo-biblyografye 1942-1950 (YIVO bibliography, 1942-1950) (New York, 1955); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).

Zaynvil Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 161.]