Baron, Salo W. (Salo Wittmayer), 1895-1989
Variant namesBiography
Salo Wittmayer Baron was instrumental in establishing Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in the United States. An extraordinarily prolific historian, Baron also played an exceptional role in American Jewish organizational life. Baron was born in 1895 in Tarnow, now in Poland but then part of Austrian Galicia. His parents, Elias Baron and Minna Wittmayer Baron, were orthodox Jews, and Elias Baron was a banker and Jewish community leader. Salo Baron had two sisters: Gisa (1892-1943) and Tanya (Tania, "Toni") (1898-?). Both Gisa and the parents died in the Holocaust in 1943. Studying at the University of Vienna, Baron earned doctorates in history (1917), political science (1922), and law (1923). Baron also completed a rabbinical degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Vienna in 1920. After teaching at the Juedisches Paedagogium in Vienna from 1919 to 1926, Baron left for the United States, where he joined the faculty of the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Baron was offered the newly-created Miller Chair of Jewish History, Literature, and Institutions in 1930 by Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his career (emeritus after 1963). In 1936 Baron and Morris R. Cohen founded the Conference on Jewish Relations (later called the Conference on Jewish Social Studies), which publishes the journal Jewish Social Studies. The author of more than a dozen monographs and over 500 articles on Jewish history, Baron had an extraordinary range and scope. He was at home in ancient, medieval, and modern history and could read twenty languages. His magnum opus was A Social and Religious History of the Jews, which filled 18 volumes. Baron saw his scholarship as a corrective to what he termed "the lachrymose conception of Jewish history." His work focused on the social history and cultural accomplishments of the Jews rather than on suffering and pogroms. Baron also sought to reintegrate religious experience into the historical fabric of Jewish life. Beginning with his work on the Permanent Minorities Commission of the League of Nations in 1925, Baron served on various international committees during his long career. He founded and directed Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, an organization dedicated to identifying and reclaiming Jewish cultural patrimony plundered by the Nazis. At the invitation of Ben Gurion, Baron testified at the Eichmann trial in 1961. In addition, Baron directed or served as trustee for several academic institutions and organizations in this country and in Israel.
From the guide to the Baron, Salo W. Papers, 1900-1980, (Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.)
| Role | Title | Holding Repository | |
|---|---|---|---|
| referencedIn | Peter R. Frank papers, 1968-1990 | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Frank, Peter R., 1924-. Peter R. Frank papers, 1968-1990. | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Abraham Aaron Roback papers, 1909-1965. | Houghton Library | |
| creatorOf | Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion. Records. 1939-1977. 1940-1968. | Ocean County College Library, OCC Library | |
| creatorOf | Baron, Salo Wittmayer, 1895-1989. Salo Wittmayer Baron papers, 1923-1946. | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Hyman G. Enelow Papers., 1897-1933. | The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives | |
| referencedIn | American Academy for Jewish Research, records, undated, 1928-2001 (bulk 1940s-1990s) | American Jewish Historical Society | |
| referencedIn | Los Angeles Jewish Community Council. The American Jewish Tercentenary Committee. American Jewish Tercentenary, 1654-1954 : Exhibit catalogue, 1955. | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| creatorOf | Baron, Salo W. Papers, 1900-1980 | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Jewish Theological Seminary of America. General Files. Records, 1902-1972. 1940-1972 (bulk). | Ocean County College Library, OCC Library | |
| referencedIn | La Piana, George, 1879-1971. Papers, 1878-1972. | Andover-Harvard Theological Library | |
| creatorOf | Baron, Salo W. (Salo Wittmayer), 1895-1989. Correspondence to Chaim Potok, 1987. | University of Pennsylvania Library | |
| referencedIn | Records, 1946-1951. | New York State Historical Documents Inventory | |
| referencedIn | National Jewish Welfare Board, Bureau of War Records, 1940-1969, undated, 1940-1969 (bulk 1943-1946) | American Jewish Historical Society | |
| referencedIn | Records, 1928-1967. | New York State Historical Documents Inventory | |
| referencedIn | Baron family. Condolence letters to the Baron family on the deaths of Jeannette Meisel Baron and Salo Baron, 1985-1989, and miscellaneous papers and cassette tapes relating to Salo W. Baron, 1972-1996. | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Oscar I. Janowsky Papers, undated, 1916-1993 | American Jewish Historical Society | |
| referencedIn | American Jewish Tercentenary Celebration Collection, undated, 1949-1956 | American Jewish Historical Society | |
| referencedIn | Joseph L. Blau Papers, 1912-1987. | Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library | |
| referencedIn | Papers, 1887-1942. | New York State Historical Documents Inventory | |
| referencedIn | Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Inc: records (microfilm), 1943-1950 | Wiener Library | |
| creatorOf | Frankel, David. Bookdealer's catalog, 1933. | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
| referencedIn | Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Institute for Religious and Social Studies. Records, 1938-1976. | Ocean County College Library, OCC Library | |
| referencedIn | Blau, Joseph L. (Joseph Leon), 1909-1986. Joseph L. Blau papers, 1912-1987. | Columbia University in the City of New York, Columbia University Libraries |
| Role | Title | Holding Repository |
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| Jewish studies |
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Person
Birth 1895-05-26
Death 1989-11-25
Americans
English
