Conference taveng::bagels

860.0. "Salo Baron" by STAR::ARBO () Wed Dec 27 1989 11:22

    Salo Baron died over this past Thanksgiving weekend (I believe on 
    11/24).  An obituary appeared in the Sunday New York Times on 
    11/26.  I accidently threw out that issue.  Perhaps someone else
    saved it and can post it, or a summary of it, here.
    
    Salo Baron was considered one of the greatest Jewish historians.
    He received several degrees in Vienna in the early part of this
    century and eventually emigrated and became a professor at 
    Columbia University.  He retired to Canaan Connecticut, where he 
    lived until his death (he was in his 90s).
    
    He lived up the road from me when I was a boy.  To the people in
    town he was simply a "famous professor from Columbia".  No one
    knew his work.  I delivered groceries to his house 
    one summer between high school and college.  I was always received
    by his wife.  One afternoon in 1977 just before entering graduate
    school at the University of Toronto an acquaintance of my father's
    set me up with this "famous professor from Columbia" to help
    me with some problems I was having translating the Psalms. (I
    was preparing to be work on the Septuagint version of the Psalter as
    a fledgling text critic).  I was graciously received by this
    very gentle and refined old man having no idea whatsoever who he
    was.  We discussed the verses in question.  This was my first
    preparation for graduate school life:  he looked things up in
    books which were in German, a language I didn't know and which
    was a constant obstacle during my graduate studies.
    
    Later, while studying Hellenistic History, I came across Baron's 
    history of the Jewish people, and discovered who he was, and how
    important his work was (then somewhat out of favor).  What a 
    surprise to discover I had be so kindly treated by one of the
    greatest scholars of the century.  It was a unique privilege
    for a student of my generation, as he had ceased teaching, and
    it will remain a very fond memory.
    
    Walt