Sol Liptzin (July 27, 1901 – November 15, 1995) was a scholar, writer, and educator in

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 ...

and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

Life

Liptzin was born in Sataniv, Russian Empire, and moved to New York at the age of nine. He graduated from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University. His doctoral advisor was Robert Herndon Fife. His stay in Berlin interested him in the romantic movement in 19th-century German literature. Starting in 1923, Liptzin taught at City College. From 1943 to 1958 he served as the chairman of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. He convinced college officials that

is a Germanic language laced with Hebrew and Russian, and that it should be taught as such in college. He was active in Jewish affairs and was the honorary president of the Jewish Book Council of America, the editor of the ''Jewish Book Annual'' (1953–1956), departmental editor for German literature in the '' Encyclopaedia Judaica'', the National Chairman of the Jewish State Zionists of America, the Academic Secretary of YIVO, and President of the College Yiddish Association. He was a visiting professor at Yeshiva University from 1929 to 1940. In 1962, he moved to Israel, where he taught at Tel Aviv University (1962–1963) and the Technion (1962–1966), where he founded the humanities program. He was a founder of Bar-Ilan University and the

Jerusalem University College Jerusalem University College (formerly American Institute of Holy Land Studies) is an independent undergraduate and graduate academic institution in Israel used by a consortium of North American theological seminaries and Christian colleges. Hi ...

and taught at both. He died on 15 November 1995 in a hospital in Jerusalem.

Bibliography

* ''Shelley in Germany'' (1924) * ''Lyric Pioneers of Modern Germany'' (1928) * ''Arthur Schnitzler: Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought'' (1932) * ''Historical Survey of German Literature'' (1936) * ''Richard Beer-Hofmann'' (1936) * ''Germany's Stepchildren'' (1944) * ''Stories from Peretz'' (1947) * ''Eliakum Zunser: Poet of His People'' * ''The English Legend of Heinrich Heine'' (1954) * ''The Flowering of Yiddish Literature'' (1963) * ''The Jew in American Literature'' (1966) * ''The Maturing of Yiddish Literature'' (1970) * ''A History of Yiddish Literature'' (1972) * ''Biblical Themes in World Literature'' (1985)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liptzin, Sol 1901 births 1995 deaths City College of New York alumni City College of New York faculty Columbia University alumni Yiddish-language literature Yeshiva University faculty Tel Aviv University faculty Technion – Israel Institute of Technology faculty American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Ukrainian Jews American emigrants to Israel Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States