Samuel Peltyn

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Samuel Hirsh Peltyn
BornMay 1831 (1831-05)
Mariampol, Augustów Voivodeship, Kingdom of Poland
Died30 September 1896(1896-09-30) (aged 65)
Warsaw, Warsaw Governorate, Russian Empire
Resting placeOkopowa Street Jewish Cemetery[1][2]
OccupationWriter, translator, and publisher
LanguagePolish
SpouseSalome Gladsztern

Samuel Zvi Hirsh "Henryk" Peltyn (Yiddish: שמואל צבי הירש בן משה פּעלטין, romanizedShmuel Tzvi Hirsh ben Moshe Peltin; May 1831 – 30 September 1896) was a Polish Jewish writer, translator, and publisher.

Biography[edit]

Grave of Samuel Hirsh Peltin

Samuel Hirsh Peltyn was born at Mariampol, where he studied Bible, Talmud, sciences, and languages. There he taught Hebrew and Polish and published a Polish grammar textbook for Yiddish-speaking children.[3]

In 1855 Peltyn settled in Warsaw to work in journalism and publishing, publishing articles promoting reform of Judaism, productivization, and the cultural Polonization of Jews.[3] In 1865 he established the Izraelita, a Polish weekly devoted to Jewish interests, remaining its editor throughout his life.[4] In this journal he wrote, besides feuilletons, articles on religion, ethics, Jewish history, and anti-Semitism, with the goal of encouraging Jewish assimilation into mainstream gentile culture.[5][6] He wrote also a number of tales of Jewish life, and made translations of the works of Leopold Kompert and others.

Peltyn was active in the Reform temple in Warsaw and attempted to give a Polish rather than a German orientation to the service and the sermon.[7] In 1875 he published an article arguing for the introduction of the organ into synagogue liturgy.[8]

Peltyn was strongly opposed to Yiddish language and literature, seeing the language as standing in the way of the Europeanisation of Jews. In 1896, not long before his death, Peltyn's article was featured on the front page of Izraelita to protest against the project promoting Yiddish publications in Warsaw.[9][10] Upon his death in 1896, Peltyn's position as editor-in-chief of Izraelita was taken over by Nahum Sokolow.[11]

References[edit]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainRosenthal, Herman; Waldstein, A. S. (1905). "Peltin, Samuel Hirsh". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 585.

  1. ^ "Cmentarze m. st. Warszawy". Cmentarze żydowskie [Jewish cemeteries] (in Polish). Warsaw: Rokart. 2003. ISBN 978-83-916419-3-4. OCLC 968675979.
  2. ^ "Samuel Henryk Peltyn". Foundation for Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  3. ^ a b Opalski, Magda (2008). "Polish Literature". In Hundert, Gershon (ed.). YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  4. ^ Opalski, Magda (2008). "Izraelita". In Hundert, Gershon (ed.). YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  5. ^ Endelman, Todd M. (2008). "Assimilation". In Hundert, Gershon (ed.). YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 85.
  6. ^ Fuks, Marian. "Peltyn Samuel Cwi (Hirsz; Henryk)". Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (in Polish). Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  7. ^ Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred, eds. (2007). "Peltin, Samuel Hirsh". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 15 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 719. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  8. ^ Goldberg, Halina (2019). "'On the Wings of Aesthetic Beauty Toward the Radiant Spheres of the Infinite': Music and Jewish Reformers in Nineteenth-Century Warsaw". The Musical Quarterly. 101 (4): 1–48. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdz001.
  9. ^ Peltyn, Samuel Cwi. "Żargon i jego literatura". Izraelita. 5: 35.
  10. ^ Waligórska, Magdalena; Kohn, Tara, eds. (2018). Jewish Translation, Translating Jewishness. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 170. ISBN 978-3-11-054764-1. OCLC 1011679993.
  11. ^ Bauer, Ela (2015). "'We Call Him Mister (Pan) Editor': Nahum Sokolow and Modern Hebrew Literature" (PDF). Studia Judaica. 18 (1): 93. doi:10.4467/24500100STJ.15.005.3888.