Faculty members of the Columbia University and of a number of other universities and colleges here, as well as Jewish writers and other persons of importance in the Jewish literary world, today attended funeral services for Dr. Uriel Weinreich, a leading linguist and foremost Yiddish scholar, who died this weekend of cancer at the age of 40.
Holding the post of Atran Professor of Yiddish language, literature and culture at Columbia University, Dr. Weinreich was at work until two days before his death on reading the final proofs of a new Yiddish-English dictionary which he had edited. The monumental work is scheduled for early publication as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research this week.
Born in Vilna, he was brought here at the age of 14, in 1940, and became an American citizen in 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army, from which he was discharged as a first lieutenant. He studied at Columbia, receiving his doctorate there in 1951, joined the faculty in 1952, and was named professor and chairman of the department of linguistics at the university in 1957.
Among Dr. Weinreich’s many works were his “College Yiddish,” a textbook that had gone into four editions. In 1959, he originated a project for the compilation of a “Language and Cultural Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry.” He was working until his death on that project, now supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1958-60, he was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Among his survivors is his father, Dr. Max Weinreich, retired professor of Yiddish studies at City College of New York, now vice-chairman of the Yivo executive committee.
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