William Chomsky - Biography

William Chomsky (1896–1977) was an American scholar of Hebrew, born in Russia (on the territory of modern Ukraine), who was a professor at Gratz College. He was made faculty president of Gratz in 1932, a position that he held for thirty seven years. He also taught at Dropsie College, a graduate school of Jewish and Semitic studies from 1955 until 1977. He was a renowned specialist of the history of the Hebrew grammatical tradition, before and after David Kimhi (1160–1235). His obituary (New York Times, 22 July 1977) describes him as "one of the world's foremost Hebrew grammarians."

He was married to Elsie Simonofsky; they had two sons, Noam and David. Noam is the well-known American linguist, activist, and public speaker. David is a physician.

Selected bibliography

• Chomsky, William: How the Study of Hebrew Grammar Began and Developed; The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jan., 1945), pp. 281–301 JStor
• Chomsky, William: How to teach Hebrew in the elementary grades; New York, The United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education, XIV 295 p. 22 cm. 1946.
• Chomsky, William: David Kimhi's Hebrew Grammar: (Mikhlol) Systematically Presented and Critically Annotated by William Chomsky; Bloch Pub Co, New York, Bloch for Dropsie College, XXXIV 427 p. 23 cm, 1952 (available in paperback as 2001 edition, ISBN 978-0819707192)
• Chomsky, William: Hebrew: The Eternal Language; Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia 1964, c1957, other edition: June 1975, ISBN 978-0827600775

External links

• Obituary in the New York Times
• Link to an essay about his wife: Elsie Chomsky: A Life in Jewish Education (by Harriet Feinberg)
• First chapter from the electronic version of Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent (by Robert F. Barsky)