STEINBERG, AARON

STEINBERG, AARON (1891–1975), author and philosopher. Steinberg, a brother of Isaac Nahman *Steinberg, was born in Dvinsk, and studied in Russia and Germany. During World War i he was interned in a German village. After the war Steinberg helped to found an institute of learning in Leningrad where the intellectual leaders of Russian Jewry came together to sponsor and create new cultural values. Here and at the university, Steinberg lectured on the history of Jewish philosophy. He was a close friend of Simon Dubnow, with whom he collaborated. The climate, however, soon became unfriendly for Jewish scholars and in 1922 he moved to Berlin, where he helped to establish the Gesellschaft für Juedische Wissenschaft, as well as the Yiddish Scientific Institute, *yivo. He published a book on Dostoevsky's Philosophy of Freedom and was co-editor of the Yiddish Algemeyne Entsiklopedye, which after many years was continued in London under the title Jewish People, Past and Present. It was Steinberg's translation of Dubnow's ten-volume World History of the Jewish People that made Dubnow well known in German-speaking countries. Together with Dubnow, he wrote a three-volume History of the Jewish People published shortly before World War ii. He also edited a memorial volume to mark Dubnow's centenary in 1960, Simon Dubnow: The Man and His Work (1860 – 1960) (1963). Steinberg wrote fluently in Hebrew, English, Yiddish, French and German and his scholarly articles were published in various journals. He settled in England in 1934 and headed the Cultural Department of the World Jewish Congress until 1971. He was Honorary President of the Association of Jewish Journalists and Authors.

[Josef Fraenkel]