Simon Deutsch (; – 24 March 1877) was an

Austrian Jewish The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewis ...

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, businessman, and

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

. He was an important member of the First International and a veteran of the Paris Commune.

Biography

Simon Deutsch was born in Vienna in 1822 to parents from Nikolsburg, Moravia He studied at the Nikolsburg yeshiva, and later completed courses in philosophy and pedagogy in accordance with an 1842 law aimed at modernising the Moravian rabbinate. As a young man he devoted himself to Hebrew studies in Vienna. He catalogued in collaboration with A. Kraft the Hebrew manuscripts in the possession of the Vienna Imperial Library, and published a medieval grammatical work in 1845. From 1844 to 1848, Deutsch was a contributor to ''Der Orient'', a Leipzig-based German-Jewish weekly; and from 1846 to 1848, he wrote for ', a Viennese literary and cultural journal, founded and edited by Ludwig August von Frankl. Alongside writer Franz Gräffer, Deutsch co-published ''Jüdischer Plutarch'' in 1848, which contained biographies of prominent Jewish poets, painters, scientists, mathematicians, doctors, philosophers and educators. That same year, he became a member of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, one of the first scholarly associations to welcome Jews into its ranks. In 1848 Deutsch sided with

the revolution A revolution is a drastic political change that usually occurs relatively quickly. For revolutions which affect society, culture, and technology more than political systems, see social revolution. Revolution may also refer to: Aviation *Warner ...

, escaping after its collapse to France. In Paris, through the assistance of Mme. Strauss, the friend of Börne, he entered upon a business career, in which he was successful. He assumed a prominent position in the Finance Department of the Paris Commune. After the fall of the Commune in May 1871, Deutsch was denounced to the government as a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. He was arrested and imprisoned at Versailles, and only the efforts of Austrian ambassador Richard von Metternich saved his life. In 1875 Deutsch began publishing the ''Maḥberet'' of Menaḥem ben Saruq in fascicles with annotations and translations into

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

, based on a manuscript in the Imperial Library of Vienna, but the work was left incomplete. Towards the end of his life Deutsch was a supporter of the Young Turks movement. He died unexpectedly while in Constantinople on business, and was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, Simon 1822 births 1877 deaths Austrian bibliographers Austrian emigrants to France 19th-century Austrian Jews Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Hebraists Jews and Judaism in Vienna People from Mikulov People of the Revolutions of 1848 Translators to Yiddish Writers from Vienna Communards