William Chomsky

William (Zev) Chomsky (born January 15, 1896 in Kupel , Volyn Governorate , Russian Empire , † July 19, 1977 in Philadelphia ) was an American Hebraist .

Chomsky left Russia in 1913 to avoid recruitment by the Imperial Russian Army . He worked first in sweatshops and then as a teacher in Jewish elementary schools in Baltimore while studying at Johns Hopkins University . He moved to Philadelphia with his wife, Elsie Simonofsky , and both taught at the Mikveh Israel Congregation religious school .

In 1924 he was accepted into the faculty of Gratz College , of which he was president from 1932 to 1955. He stayed at this college for Jewish studies until 1969. From 1955 until his retirement in 1977 he also worked at Dropsie College , the research center for Jewish and Semitic studies (today Center for Advanced Judaic Studies , CAJS) at the University of Pennsylvania .

Chomsky was considered a specialist in Hebrew grammar. He once described the Talmud as his ideal text , whose "parallel stories, long discursive footnotes and main commentaries, and text commenting on the text" he valued ( Jay Parini ).

He is the father of David Eli and Noam Chomsky . His granddaughter is the Latin American scientist Aviva Chomsky .

Works

• How to teach Hebrew in the elementary grades ; New York, The United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education , XIV 295 S 22 cm. 1946.
• David Kimhi 's Hebrew Grammar: (Mikhlol) ; Bloch Pub Co , New York, Bloch for Dropsie College , XXXIV 427 S 23 cm, 1952 (Paperback: 2001 edition: ISBN 978-0-8197-0719-2 )
• Hebrew: The Eternal Language ; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America , 1964, c1957, June 1975 edition, ISBN 978-0-8276-0077-5