Max Emanuel Stern
Lithograph of Stern by Johann Stadler [de]
Lithograph of Stern by Johann Stadler
Native name
Mendel b'ri Stern
BornMenaḥem Mendel Stern
(1811-11-09)9 November 1811
Presburg, Kingdom of Hungary
Died9 February 1873(1873-02-09) (aged 61)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Resting placeWähring Jewish Cemetery, Vienna
Pen nameErnst, M. E. Ernst[1]
LanguageHebrew, German, Yiddish

Max Emanuel Stern (9 November 1811 – 9 February 1873), also known as Mendel b'ri Stern (Yiddish: מענדל בר״י שטערן), was a Hungarian-born Hebraist, writer, poet, and translator.

Biography

Born to Jewish parents in Presburg in 1811, Stern first studied under his father Isak, who was a teacher at the local Jewish primary school.[2] When his father became blind, Max, then only fourteen years of age, took charge of his classes,[3] devoting his nights to further study and to writing his Dichtungen, his Maslul, and his Perlenblumen, the latter being metrical translations of the Proverbs.[4] His poems first appeared in print in 1827.[5] Stern held the teaching position for nine years, resigning upon his father's death in late 1832.[6]

The following year he accepted the position of literary advisor and proofreader for Anton Edler von Schmid's printing press at Vienna.[7] He was appointed principal of the Hebrew-German school at Eisenstadt in 1835, where he wrote his epic Tif'ereth ha-Tishbi, a biography of the prophet Elijah in two parts.[8] In 1838, after having taught for half a year at Triesch, he returned to Vienna, where he prepared his epic for the press, publishing it under the pseudonym of "M. I. Ernst" (Leipzig, 1840). He meanwhile became known to wider circles through translations of prayers and philosophical writings.[5]

Stern began in 1845 to publish his Hebrew periodical Kokhve Yitzḥak ('Stars of Isaac'; 36 volumes, 1845–69), which included poetry, prose, scholarly articles, and translations,[9] and was twice subsidized by the Imperial Academy of Science at Vienna.[4] Later he received from the Emperor of Austria the Imperial and Royal Austrian Gold Medal for Science and Art and the Order of Franz Joseph,[6] and was made an honorary member of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.[10]

In the last years of his life, he made his living from the production of Hebrew funerary writings and occasional poems.[6]

Bibliography

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; Venetianer, Ludwig (1905). "Stern, Max Emanuel (Mendel Bri Stern)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 551.

  1. ↑ Blumesberger, Susanne; Doppelhofer, Michael; Mauthe, Gabriele (2002). Handbuch österreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren jüdischer Herkunft: 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert (in German). Vol. 1. Munich: K. G. Saur. pp. 1322–1323. doi:10.1515/9783110949001. ISBN 978-3-11-094900-1.
  2. ↑ Gräffer, Franz; Deutsch, Simon (1848). Jüdischer Plutarch; oder, Biographisches Lexicon der markantesten Männer und Frauen jüdischer Abkunst (in German). Vol. 1. Vienna: Verlag von Ulrich Klopf und Alexander Eurich. pp. 246–252.
  3. ↑ Eidherr, A. (2008). "Stern, Max Emanuel; Ps. (M. E.) Ernst, Mendel bri Stern (1811–1873), Schriftsteller und Lehrer". Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon. Vol. 13. p. 229. doi:10.1553/0x00284e97.
  4. 1 2  Singer, Isidore; Venetianer, Ludwig (1905). "Stern, Max Emanuel (Mendel Bri Stern)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 551.
  5. 1 2 Brüll, Adolf (1893). "Stern, Max E.". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 36. p. 108.
  6. 1 2 3 "Stern, Max Emanuel". Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (in German). Vol. 38. 1879. p. 241.
  7. ↑ Wurzbach, Constant von (1879). Biographisches lexikon des kaiserthums Oesterreich (in German). Vol. 38. Vienna: Druck und Verlag der K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. pp. 241–246.
  8. ↑ Katznelson, J. L.; Ginzburg, Baron D., eds. (1910). "Штерн, Макс Эммануил (Мендель)"  [Stern, Max Emmanuel (Mendel)]. Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron (in Russian). Vol. 6. St. Petersburg: Brockhaus & Efron. pp. 113–114.
  9. ↑ Kressel, Getzel (2007). "Stern, Max Emanuel". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  10. ↑ Kohut, Adolf (1900). Berühmte israelitische Männer und Frauen in der Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit (in German). Vol. 2. Leipzig-Reudnitz: A. H. Payne. pp. 126–127.
  11. ↑ Grunwald, Max (1936). Vienna. Jewish Communities Series. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America. pp. 249–250.
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