SCHUR, WILLIAM:
American author; born at Outian, near Vilkomir, Russia, Oct. 27, 1844. He studied Talmud at his native town and at the Yeshibah, Kovno, and theology at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums at Berlin (1868-70). During the following two years he taught Hebrew in Constantinople, and in 1873 in Port Said and Cairo. He then spent five years (1874-1879) in travel, visiting Africa, India, China, the Philippine Islands, and the islands of the China Sea. Returning to Europe, he settled in Vienna, and became a contributor to Smolenskin's "Ha-Shaḥar," as well as to "Ha-Meliẓ," and "Ha-Yom." In 1887 he went to America, and lived successively in the cities of New York, Baltimore, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago, in which last-named city he has resided since 1897.
Schur is the author of "Maḥazot ha-Ḥayyim" (Vienna, 1884) and "Mas'ot Shelomoh" (ib. 1885), both containing descriptions of his journeys; of the following novels: "Masse'at Nafshah"; "Afiḳomen ha-Ganub"; "Ha-Nebi'ah Nilel Hilton"; "Ha-Halikah el ha-Ḥeder"; "Kapparat 'Awon"; "Wa-Yippol ba-Shaḥat"; "Aḥarha-Meridahha-Gedolah"; and of a historico-religious work, "Neẓaḥ Yisrael."
- American Jewish Year Book, 5665 (1905), p. 183.
