DIESENDRUCK, ZEVI

DIESENDRUCK, ZEVI (1890–1940), philosopher, scholar. Born in Stryj, Galicia, he studied in Vienna. He also taught in Palestine (1913), attended the University of Berlin (1915), and in World War i joined the Austrian army. After the war, he served on the faculties of the Jewish Pedagogium (Vienna, 1918–27), the Jewish Institute of Religion (New York, 1927), the Hebrew University (Jerusalem, 1928–30), and the Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati, 1930–40), where he was professor of Jewish philosophy. Diesendruck showed a lifelong interest in Zionism, particularly the revival of the Hebrew language. He contributed to this revival with Hebrew essays, notably: the volume Min ha-Safah ve-Lifnim (1933); a Hebrew translation of Martin Buber's Daniel; Hebrew translations of Plato's Phaedrus (Warsaw, 1923), Crito (in: Ha-Tekufah, 24 (1924)), Gorgias (Berlin, 1929), and The Republic (Tel Aviv, 1935–36); and coedited (with G. Schoffmann) a Hebrew periodical Gevulot (1919). Diesendruck's chief interest was Jewish philosophy, particularly Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. Diesendruck's philosophic writings include "Maimonides Lehre von der Prophetie" (in: Jewish Studies in Memory of Israel Abrahams, 1927); "Die Teleologie bei Maimonides" (in: huca, 5 (1928), 415–534); "Samuel and Moses ibn Tibbon on Maimonides' Theory of Providence" (in: huca, 11 (1936), 341–66); "On the Date of the Completion of the Moreh Nebukhim" (in: huca, 12–13 (1937–38), 461–98); Struktur und Charakter des platonischen Phaidros (1927).

bibliography:

G. Bader, Medinah va-Ḥakhameha (1934), 72; I. Cohen, Demut el Demut (1949), 2, 8–24; F. Lachower, Shirah u-Mahashavah (1953), 164–84; S. Ẓemaḥ, Adam im Aḥerim (1954), 35–48; A. Kariv, Iyyunim (1950), 162–71; G. Schoffmann, Kol Kitvei, 4 (1960³), 274f.

[Alvin J. Reines]