S.A. Birnbaum was a pioneer in the academic study of Yiddish. The first person to hold a teaching post in the study of Yiddish at any university in the world, he taught at the Universities of Hamburg and London.

Eleazar Birnbaum is a professor emeritus in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toront0.

David Birnbaum is the Director of the Nathan and Solomon Birnbaum Archives, Toronto.

Kalman Weiser is the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at York University, Toronto.

Jean Baumgarten is Directeur de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Centre d’Études Juives, Paris, France.

Preface to the New Edition

Part A: Introductory Essays

1. A Brief Account of Solomon Birnbaum’s Life and Some Personal Reminiscences (Eleazar and David Birnbaum)

2. Yiddish: A Survey and A Grammar in Its Historical and Cultural Context (Kalman Weiser)

3. Solomon A. Birnbaum: An Appreciation of a Lifetime of Scholarship on Yiddish (Jean Baumgarten)

Part B: Solomon A. Birnbaum’s Yiddish, a Survey and a Grammar (1979)

Errata

Part C: Supplementary Bibliography (2014)