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Simon Bacher (February 1, 1823,Liptovský Mikuláš – November 9, 1891,Budapest), bornShimon ben Yitzḥak Bacharach (Hebrew:שִׁמְעוֹן בֵּן יִצְחַק בַּכָרָךְ), was aHungarian JewishHebrew poet.
Simon Bacher came of a family of scholars, and counted as one of his ancestors the well-known Moravian-German rabbiJair Ḥayyim Bacharach. He studiedTalmud in his native city, inMikulov under MenahemNahum Trebitsch, and inEisenstadt andBonyhád underMoses Perles. During this period Bacher was much influenced by the new movement of theHaskalah, and he also studied the secular sciences and literature.
When nineteen years old Bacher returned to Liptovský Mikuláš, where, despite the business in which he was engaged, he continued his studies enthusiastically. After many struggles Bacher in 1874 went to Budapest, where two years later he was appointed treasurer of the Jewish community. This office he held until he died.
When a boy of 7, Bacher had translatedGerman poems intoHebrew. Thus Schiller'sSong of the Bell first came to be known to the scholars in Bonyhád, who were wholly engrossed with their Talmudic studies. The events of his fatherland and of the Jewish community, festival days and days of mourning, jubilees and funerals, equally inspired his song. He celebrated scholars, preachers, statesmen; orators, singers, philanthropists, and writers; and Jewish legends and history also provided subjects for his poems, in which were mingled reflections and expressions of sentiment, myths, and historical events.
In addition to short scientific and miscellaneous contributions to magazines—the former consisting of linguistic studies on the Talmud and essays in archeology—Bacher wrote some short poems in German. But his place in Jewish literature was won chiefly by his Hebrew poetry. He also translated German,French, andHungarian poems into Hebrew. The translations are classic in form, and reproduce the spirit of the original.
Bacher contributed to many Jewish magazines, and wrote also a number ofoccasional poems published separately. Among his longer works are the following:
After Bacher's death his sonWilhelm Bacher published, under the titleSha'ar Shim'on (Vienna, 1894), a selection of Hebrew poems, culled from Bacher's printed works and from unpublished manuscripts, 1894, in three parts: the first of these contains his original poems; the second, translations; and the third,Nathan der Weise. The work is prefaced with a biography of Bacher and a chronological list of his works.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Louis Ginzberg,Eduard Neumann (1901–1906)."Bacher, Simon". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.| International | |
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