MORITZ STEINSCHNEIDER (March 30, 1816-January 24, 1907)
He was
the greatest of Hebrew bibliographers. His
Jewish given name was Moshe. Although
his attitude toward “zhargon” [Yiddish] was one of enmity and contempt, nonetheless
his bibliographic work with Yiddish literature was such that a Yiddish bibliographer
or philologist cannot do without it. He
described 385 published Yiddish books before 1740 (in Serapeum [1848-1849]).
Fifteen years later he provided a description of sixty-four manuscripts
in Yiddish (Serapeum 1-12 [1866]);
and he wrote about the Mayse-bukh
(Story book), about the old Germanicized Yiddish translations of the Pentateuch
and Yiddish translations of Tanakh generally; and a series of articles on
Yiddish religious texts, thirty-one publications of Purim plays, and the
like. He died in Berlin.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Encyclopaedia
Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972).
Berl Cohen
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