Sol Liptzin was a scholar, author, and educator in Yiddish

Yiddish literature

Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.It is generally described...

 and German literature

German literature

German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...

.

Life

Liptzin was born in Sataniv, Ukraine, and moved to New York at the age of nine. He graduated from City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

 and did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

His stay in Berlin interested him in the romantic movement

German Romanticism

For the general context, see Romanticism.In the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its...

 in 19th-century German literature.

Starting in 1923, Liptzin taught at City College. From 1943 to 1958 he served as the chairman of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. He convinced college officials that Yiddish is a Germanic language laced with Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, and that it should be taught as such in college.

He was active in Jewish affairs and was the honorary president of the Jewish Book Council of America, the editor of the Jewish Book Annual (1953–1956), departmental editor for German literature in the Encyclopaedia Judaica

Encyclopaedia Judaica

The Encyclopaedia Judaica is a 26-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people and their faith, Judaism. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, language, scripture, and religious teachings...

, the National Chairman of the Jewish State Zionists of America, the Academic Secretary of YIVO

YIVO

YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...

, and President of the College Yiddish Association. He was a visiting professor at Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...

 from 1929 to 1940.

In 1962, he moved to Israel, where he taught at Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...

 (1962–1963) and the Technion (1962–1966), where he founded the humanities program.

He was a founder of Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...

 and the Jerusalem University College

Jerusalem University College

Jerusalem University College, founded in 1957 as the American Institute of Holy Land Studies is an undergraduate and graduate academic institution operated by a consortium of 100 American theological seminaries and Christian colleges and universities. It provides a two-year graduate program of...

and taught at both.

He died on 15 November 1995 in a hospital in Jerusalem.