SHLOYME NOBL (SHLOMO NOBLE)

SHLOYME NOBL (SHLOMO NOBLE) (July 4, 1905-May 4, 1986)

            He was born in Sonek, eastern Galicia.  His father was an office employee and a Hebrew teacher.  He studied in religious elementary schools and in a Hebrew school.  In 1919 the family immigrated to the United States, and there he attended (1920-1924) the yeshiva of R. Yitskhok Elkhonen in New York and the Baltimore Hebrew College.  He received a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1939.  From 1944 he was associated with YIVO.  He was also a teacher of Jewish history at the Jewish teachers’ seminary in New York.  He published a work entitled Khumesh-taytsh, an oysforshung vegn traditsye fun taytshn khumesh in di khadorim (Khumesh-taytsh, an inquiry into the tradition of translating the Pentateuch in the religious elementary schools) (New York: YIVO, 1943), 88 pp.  In addition, he wrote the following works for Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) in New York: “Der malbim, a kemfer kegn reform” (The Malbim [Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser, 1809-1879], a fighter against reform) 33 (1950), pp. 234-38; “R. yekhiel-mikhl epshteyn, a dertsier un kemfer far yidish in 17tn yorhundert” (R. Yechiel-Michel Epstein, an educator and fighter for Yiddish in the seventeenth century) 35 (1951), pp. 131-38; “Dos bild fun dem amerikaner yid in der hebreisher un yidisher literaturn” (The image of the American Jew in Hebrew and Yiddish literatures) 38 (1954), pp. 50-77.  “Dr. Noble,” wrote Dr. Max Weinreich, “is a newcomer to our linguistic research, but he is a beginner only in matters of publication.  He comes to us well-prepared with many years of study, is proficient not only in Yiddish but also in the neighboring fields Germanics and Hebraistics.  And his book [Khumesh-taytsh] demonstrates that he has a vigilant sensibility concerning methodology and a living interest in issues of general linguistics.”  “Dr. Shlomo Noble,” noted Arn Leyeles, “put a tremendous amount of research into his work, a great deal of knowledge and intuition as well.  Not only is this valuable for reading but one really needs to study it.  In particular, this should be done by those who work in the fields of Yiddish and Jewish learning, such as: teachers, writers, and those tied to Jewish cultural institutions, and the like.  For poets and novelists, reading Dr. Shlomo Noble’s work is truly a must.”

Sources: A. Leyeles, in Tog (New York) (February 16, 1952); Kh. Liberman, in Yivo-bleter (New York) 36 (1952); Dr. Max Weinreich, preface to Nobel’s book, Khumesh-tsaytsh (New York, 1943); Y. Rozental, in Bitsaron (New York) (Nisan [= April-May] 1948); A. A. Roback, in Jewish Social Studies (New York) (April 1944).

Leyb Vaserman