LEIBL, DANIEL

LEIBL, DANIEL (1891–1967), Yiddish and Hebrew linguist, poet, and editor. Born in Debica, Poland, Leibl, a political activist all his life, was excluded in 1910 from the gymnasium because of "Zionism and Socialism." He was also active on behalf of the rights of the Yiddish language during the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910. As a student of law at Vienna University, Leibl became interested in Yiddish linguistic research, to which he afterward devoted himself. In 1924 he settled in Palestine. An active member of Po'alei Zion (later of the Left Po'alei Zion and Mapam), Leibl did editorial work for various Yiddish and Hebrew publications. He was simultaneously an active Zionist (he held various high positions in the *Histadrut and in Mapam) and a loyal Yiddishist (he was wounded in an attack by the militant Hebraists of the Gedud Meginnei ha-Safah ("Guardians of the Language")); a Yiddish poet and translator (especially of the Polish poets S. Wispiansky and Maria Konopnicka) and a Hebrew poet and translator (of the Polish poet J. Slowacki); a Yiddish linguist (e.g., his study in the yivo's Landoy-Bukh, 1926) and a Hebrew linguist (member of the Hebrew Language Academy and contributor to Leshonenu and Leshonenu la-Am).

bibliography:

S. Bickel, in: Der Tog/Morgen-Zhurnal (April 1, 1967); lnyl, 5 (1963), 104–6; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 253. add. bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 192–4; M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon, 3 (1958), 221–2.

[Mordkhe Schaechter]