Silberschlag, Eisig
SILBERSCHLAG, EISIG
SILBERSCHLAG, EISIG (1903–1988), Hebrew poet and critic. He grew up in a ḥasidic home in Metri, Galicia, migrated to the U.S., studied at the University of Vienna, and returned to the U.S. He was professor in Hebrew literature at the Hebrew Teachers College in Boston, and was its dean from 1948 to 1968. He published poems in Hadoar, Ha-Tekufah, and other Hebrew journals. The life-loving quality of his verse – mainly influenced by Tchernichovsky and Rilke – is evident in Ha-Raz ha-Ḥasidi and Yerushat Beit Abba. Silberschlag also wrote critical prose in Hebrew and English, and translated several comedies by Aristophanes. His poems were collected in Bi-Shevilim Bodedim (1931) and Aleh Olam be-Shir (1946).
His book Saul Tschernichowsky – Poet of Revolt was published in 1969. Other works include: Mi-Pi Kushim, Sheva Panim le-Ḥavvah, and Tehiyyah u-Teḥiyyah ba-Shirah (1938), a book of essays; Yehudah Halevi (1925), an epic poem; Bi-Ymei Isabella (1941), a collection of plays; Sefer Turov, edited with Y. Twersky; and Ha-Tekufah (vols. 30–31, 32–33), edited with A. Zeitlin. He translated the love songs of Paulus Silentiarius (1945, 19622) and Berenica by Karl de Haas (1945).
bibliography:
A. Epstein, Soferim Ivrim ba-Amerikah (1953), 209–28; M. Ribalow, Ketavim u-Megillot (1942), 224–9; Waxman, Literature, 4 (1960), 1255ff.; 5 (1960), 194ff.
[Jerucham Tolkes]