STERN, MAX EMANUEL (MENDEL BRI STERN):

By: Isidore Singer, Ludwig Venetianer

Hungarian Hebraist; born at Presburg Nov. 9. 1811; died at Vienna Feb. 9, 1873. He studied under his father, who was a teacher at the Jewish primary school in Presburg, and when the elder Stern became blind, Max, then only fourteen years of age, took charge of his classes, devoting his nights to further study and to writing his "Dichtungen," his "Maslul," and his "Perlenblumen," the last-named being translations, in rime and meter, of the Proverbs. In 1833 he accepted the position of corrector for Schmid's printing-press at Vienna, and two years later was appointed principal of the Judæo-German school at Eisenstadt, where he wrote his epic "Tif'ereth ha-Tishbi." In 1838, after having taught for half a year at Triesch, he returned to Vienna, where he prepared his epic for the press, publishing it under the pseudonym of "M. I. Ernst" (Leipsic, 1840); at the same time he issued his satire "Thurmbau zu Babel." In 1845 Stern began to publish his periodical "Kokebe Yiẓḥaḳ," which was twice subsidized by the Imperial Academy of Science at Vienna; later he received from the emperor the gold medal "pro litteris et artibus," besides being made an honorary member of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.

Stern published the following works, in addition to those already mentioned: "König Sauls Glück und Ende" (Presburg, 1833); "Sprüche Salomos," with translation and a Hebrew commentary (ib. 1833; 2d ed., Vienna, 1854); "Shire ha-Yiḥud" (Vienna, 1840); "Ebel Mosheh" (ib. 1840); "Perlen des Orients" (ib. 1840); "Zeitstimmen" (Leipsic, 1841); "Klänge aus der Vorzeit" (Vienna, 1841); "Das Buch Ezechiel" (ib. 1842); "Bet ha-Sefer" (ib. 1842); "Die Fromme Zionstochter" (ib. 1842); "Toledot Yisrael" (ib. 1844); "Die Weisheitssprüche des Josua b. Sirach" (ib. 1844); "Festgebete der Israeliten"; "Bikkure ha-'Ittim" (one number; ib. 1844); "Rachel" (ib. 1844); "Ha-Shenah ha-Nimkeret" (ib. 1847); "Beḥinat ha-'Olam," by Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi (ib. 1847); "Nazional-Harfenlied" (ib. 1848), with music by Solomon Sulzer; "Mosedot Emunah" (ib. 1851); "Seliḥot" (ib. 1853); "Haggadah" (ib. 1854); "Taḥkemoni" of Judah al-Ḥarizi (ib. 1854); "Die Rabbinerwahl in Bumesl" (ib. 1856); "Lehrbuch der Herzenspflichten nach Bechai" (ib. 1856); "Hoḳmat Shelomoh" (ib. 1858); "Zur Alexander-Sage" (ib. 1861); "Oẓar ha-Millin" (ib. 1863); a translation of the "Moreh Nebukim" (ib. 1864); "Keter Torah" (ib. 1864); and a translation of Mansello's "Tofet we-'Eden" (ib. 1865).

S. L. V.