David S. Blondheim Explained

David Simon Blondheim (August 25, 1884, Baltimore – body found March 19, 1934, Baltimore)[1] was a professor of Romance philology at the Johns Hopkins University[2] and a scholar of medieval Jewish texts in Romance languages.[3]

Early life and education

Blondheim received an A.B. in 1906 and a Ph.D. in 1910 from the Johns Hopkins University, [1] with study in Paris at the École des Hautes Études.[4] He was Associate Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)[5] when, in 1917, he was appointed to the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University.[6]

Career

Blondheim was a major figure in the study of Jewish varieties of medieval Romance languages[7] and researched Jewish medieval writings, particularly Hebraico-French texts,[8] and was the author of many books about early translations of Jewish texts.[9] He carried on the research of Arsene Darmesteter into rabbinical glosses.[10] He was also an important scholarly editor.[8]

A substantial survey of Blondheim's life and work appeared as David L. Gold, 'Towards a Prosopography of David Simon Blondheim (1884-1934),' Jewish Language Review (Haifa, Israel: Association for the Study of Jewish Languages), vol. 6 (1986), 185–202. An extensive bibliography[11] was published elsewhere.

"Blondheim's papers are in the National and University Library, Jerusalem" (Gold, op. cit., p. 202), as well as at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Personal life

He was married twice. He and his first wife had a son (Hillel Blondheim); they later divorced. He then married Eleanor Lansing Dulles in December 1932. Their son (David Dulles) was born after his father's suicide.[12]

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/resources/108 Guide to the David Simon Blondheim papers, 1924–1981, Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
  2. Book: Stephen Glain. State Vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire. August 15, 2012. Broadway Books. 978-0-307-40842-6. 146–.
  3. Gold. David L.. 1986. Towards a Prosopography of David Simon Blondheim (1884-1934). Jewish Language Review. 6. 185–202.
  4. Book: Shimeon Brisman. A History and Guide to Judaic Dictionaries and Concordances. 2000. KTAV Publishing House, Inc.. 978-0-88125-658-1. 35–.
  5. The Alumni Quarterly of the University of Illinois 4.3 (1910), p. 242.
  6. Transactions of the Board of Trustees, University of Illinois [Urbana-Champaign], 1916, p. 273.
  7. Paul Wexler, Judeo-Romance Linguistics: A Bibliography (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. xi
  8. Book: Kirsten A. Fudeman. Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities. 6 June 2011. University of Pennsylvania Press. 978-0-8122-0535-0. 6–.
  9. Book: James K. Aitken. James Carleton Paget. The Jewish-Greek Tradition in Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire. 31 October 2014. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-107-00163-3. 138–.
  10. Book: Yakov Malkiel. Etymology. 4 November 1993. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-31166-3. 100–.
  11. H. H. Shapiro, A Bibliography of the Publications of David S. Blondheim, Publications of the Modern Language Association 49, No. 4 (1934), 1199-1201.
  12. http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00846.html Dulles, Eleanor Lansing — American National Biography Online
  13. Book: Lewis Samuel Feuer. Einstein and the Generations of Science. 1974. Transaction Publishers. 978-1-4128-2235-0. 99–.
  14. Book: Jonathan D. Sarna. Ellen Smith. Scott-Martin Kosofsky. The Jews of Boston. 2005. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-10787-6. 255–.