Menachem Banitt (born Max Berenblut, July 17, 1914, Antwerp, Belgium, died February 24, 2007, Israel), was a Belgian–Israeli scholar of medieval French culture and language and an internationally acclaimed expert on

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

. Banitt was particularly known for his analysis of Rashi's occasional translation of words and phrases from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

into

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

, written phonetically in Hebrew letters. Banitt, who lived for most of his life in Israel, was a recipient of the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

for the Study of Jewish Languages in 1999. He was also awarded the French honour of Officier of the

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

. Banitt was credited with writing the articles in the second edition of ''

The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

'' (2007) on

David S. Blondheim David Simon Blondheim (August 25, 1884, Baltimore – body found March 19, 1934, Baltimore) was a professor of Romance philology at the Johns Hopkins University and a scholar of medieval Jewish texts in Romance languages. Early life and education B ...

Judeo-French Zarphatic, or Judeo-French (Zarphatic: ''Tzarfatit''), is an extinct Jewish language that was spoken by the French Jews of northern France and in parts of west-central Germany, such as Mainz, Frankfurt am Main and Aix-la-Chapelle. It was al ...

and La'az.

References

Officiers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Writers from Antwerp Belgian Jews Belgian emigrants to Israel Israel Prize in Jewish studies recipients who were historians 1914 births 2007 deaths Old French Linguistic history Historical linguists Burials at Yarkon Cemetery {{Israel-academic-bio-stub

See also

References