AVRAHAM-MEIR HABERMAN (AVROM-MEYER, HABERMANN)

AVRAHAM-MEIR HABERMAN (AVROM-MEYER, HABERMANN) (January 1, 1901-1980)

            He was born in Zhuravne, eastern Galicia.  He studied in religious primary school and in yeshivas.  From 1919 he was living in Germany, studying at Würzburg University.  He was a teacher and librarian.  From 1934, he was living in Israel, where he served as director of the Schocken Institute in Jerusalem (department of Hebrew poetry).  In both 1955 and 1959, he visited the United States.  He wrote stories and scholarly articles in Hebrew, English, and German.  He began to write in Yiddish in 1919 and wrote stories and critical treatments in Yudishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Leipzig (1924), Togblat (Daily newspaper) in Lemberg, and Haynt (Today) in Warsaw.  In Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) (Vilna) 3 (1932), he published: “Tuvye feders Kol meḥatsetsim un Sebastyan minister un yidish” (Tuvia Feder’s Voice of the Archers and “Sebastian Münster and Yiddish”); and 13 (1938), “Di yidishe oysgabes fun moshl hakadmoni” (The Yiddish editions of The Fable of the Ancient).  Among his book-length works in Hebrew: Tefilot meen shemone esre (Prayers of the eighteen benedictions) (Berlin, 1933), 57 pp.; Perute rabi shimon bar yitsḥak (The liturgical poems of R. Shimon bar Yitsḥak) (Berlin, 1938), 229 pp.; Beron yaḥad (Singing together) (Jerusalem, 1945), 250 pp.; Sefer gezerot ashkenaz vetsarefat (Books of decrees in Ashkenaz and France) (Jerusalem, 1946), 277 pp.; Ben hamelekh vehanazir (The prince and the nazirite) (Tel Aviv, 1950), 414 pp.; Eda veedut (Community and law) (Jerusalem, 1952), 167 pp.; Megilot midbar yehudi (Scrolls of the Judean desert) (Jerusalem, 1959), 213 pp. and (Tel Aviv, 1959), 175 pp.; and many more.  He was also editor of the quarterly Megilat sefer (Scroll of the book) in Jerusalem.  He offered additional information to the Hebrew translation of Y. Tsinberg’s Geshikhte fun literatur bay yidn (History of Jewish literature).  Among his pen names: Hayamin Hayerushalmi, R. Meyerl Khazan, A yid fun a ganz yor, and R. Ben Uri.  He was living in Jerusalem.

Sources: E. Ben-Ezra, in Hadoar (New York) (September 8, 1933); Dov Sadan, Kaarat tsimukim (A bowl of raisins) (Tel Aviv, 1949); Sadan, Kaarat egozim (A bowl of nuts) (Tel Aviv, 1952), see index; M. Goshen-Gutshteyn, in Haarets (Tel Aviv) (July 17, 1959); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).