1 Kings 5:26 to 6:13 Ezek. 43:10-27 1 Kings 18:1-39 (18: 20-39) I Kings 7:40-50 (7: 13-26) I Kings 7:51 to 8:21 (7:40-50) Isa. 43:21 to 44:23 Jer. 7:21 to 8:3; 9: 22-23 II Sam. 6:1 to 7:3 (6:1-19) II Kings 4:42 to 5:19 Jer. 16:19 to 17:14 Judges 13:2-25 1 Sam. 11:14 to 12: 22 Judges 11:1-33 1 Kings 18:46 to 19: 21 Jer. 1:1 to 2:3 Jer. 2:4-28; 3:4 (2: 4-28; 4:1-2) Isa. 1:1-27 Isa. 40:1-26 Isa. 49:14 to 51:3 Isa. 54:11 to 55:5 Isa. 51:12 to 52:12 Isa. 54:1-10 Isa. 60:1-22 Isa. 61:10 to 63:9 Isa. 55:6 to 56:8 II Sam. 22:1-51 Josh. 1:1-18 (1:1-9) SIEFF, ISRAEL MOSES, merchant and philanthropist, b. Manchester, England, 1889. He graduated from Owens College at Manchester University, and entered the merchandising field. As vice-president of the Marks and Spencer chain stores he became one of the leading businessmen of England, and one of the country's important industrial leaders. He served from 1931 to 1939 as chairman of the Political and Economic Planning Committee in London, and after 1939 as vice-chairman. Among Sieff's philanthropic and cultural activities in the Jewish field was his establishment (1933) of the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovoth, Palestine, in memory of his son. His contributions to Zionist activities in England were consistently significant; however, it was not only as a philanthropist, but as a disciple of Chaim Weizmann, that Sieff was one of the most devoted supporters of the Zionist movement. During the early years of the first World War he worked with Weizmann to bring about the issuance of the Balfour Declaration. In 1918 he was secretary of the first Zionist commission to Palestine. Afterward he turned his industrial knowledge and experience to the task of building a sound economic structure in Palestine. From 1925 to 1935 Sieff was vicepresident of the English Zionist Federation. He also served from 1924 to 1934 as grand master of the Order of Ancient Israel Moses Sieff (see also illustration on p. 441) SIEGEL Maccabeans. In 1943 Sieff was visiting in the United States, where he had been (from March, 1942) a member of the industry council of the Office of Price Administration. REBECCA DORO SIEFF, wife of Israel Moses Sieff, was associated with him in Zionist and other philanthropic activities. She was chairman of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and president of the Federation of Women Zionists of Great Britain and Ireland. She was also affiliated in a directive capacity with refugee work. SIEGEL, ISAAC, lawyer, American Congressman, and judge, b. New York city, 1880. He received the LL.B. degree from New York University Law School, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1902 and to Supreme Court practice in 1916. From 1909 to 1911 he served as special attorney general of New York state for the prosecution of bankruptcy and election frauds. He was elected as a Republican to Congress, serving from 1915 to 1923. Siegel was chairman of the Overseas Committee which, in 1918, visited France and Italy to inquire into the conditions of Americans serving in the expeditionary forces and on that occasion he helped to establish several headquarters in France of the Jewish Welfare Board on whose Army and Navy Committee he was serving. After the War Siegel led the fight against immigration restrictions, and in 1921 he was chairman of the committee to investigate immigration conditions on the Pacific coast, and more particularly Japanese immigration. He drew up the Federal Probation Law. In 1923, about 3,200 immigrants were faced with being returned to their points of departure because they were in excess of quota. Before the United States District Court and against the Attorney General of the United States, Siegel contended that the use of anticipated quota numbers for troops of General Kolchak was unlawful, and successfully claimed 3,200 quota numbers for the immigrants waiting for admission. Siegel also dealt with some 4,700 soldier cases that came up before military tribunals, including the case of Private Lawrence Perlmutter, whose acquittal of the charge of espionage he brought about. Siegel was appointed a magistrate of the city of New York in 1939 and a justice of the Domestic Relations Court of the city of New York in 1940. He played a prominent role in the Republican Party of New York city, being a delegate to several Republican national conventions and a candidate on the Republican ticket in various elections. From 1920 SIENA to 1939 he served as president of the Republican Club of the 18th Assembly District. Siegel was also active in Jewish religious, educational and civic endeavors. He was a co-founder and president of the Institutional Synagogue; a co-founder and member of the executive committee of the Jewish Education Association; he also served on the executive committee of the Central Jewish Relief Committee. From 1926 on he was a director of the Young Men's Hebrew Association. SIEGELSTEIN, BENNETT E., lawyer, b. Jassy, Roumania, 1880. He was brought to the United States in 1883. Siegelstein received the LL.B. degree from New York University and was a member of the New York state legislature (1903-4), the youngest man in the legislature. He was the author of the Bill to Abolish Capital Punishment and of the Reform Prison Bill. Siegelstein was a delegate of the State of New York to the convention of the American Bar Association in London (1924). He was a president of the United Roumanian Jews of America and Canada. SIEGHART, RUDOLF, public official and financier, b. Troppau, Moravia, 1866; d. Vienna, 1937. Sieghart, whose original name was Singer before he was baptized, studied law at Vienna from 1883, and earned his living as a private teacher. In 1884, as a student, he became secretary to the political headquarters of the Austrian United Liberal Parties. Thus he became acquainted with almost all the leading politicians and the editors of the great newspapers both of Austria and Germany. In 1892 he was graduated as a doctor of law. In 1894 he entered the Austrian ministry of finance, and soon attracted the attention of his superiors by his memorandum concerning the new regulations of the financial contributions of Austria and Hungary. In 1897 Sieghart entered the chancery of the Austrian prime minister, and was the most influential adviser of five successive prime ministers, without consideration for their different political opinions. Sieghart supported Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne, when this prince was preparing for his marriage with Countess Choteck, and mediated between the archduke and the reluctant emperor. Francis Ferdinand for some years exalted the service done by Sieghart, but afterward he became Sieghart's adversary. Sieghart succeeded in inducing Lueger and his anti-Semitic party to support the government, although this party had been opposed to all preceding governments. Sieghart pretended to believe anti-Semitism mainly an economic movement, and avowedly neglected its religious and racial tendencies. In 1907 Sieghart was appointed director of the Österreichische Boden-Credit-Anstalt. But his adversaries made every effort to remove him from this position, too. They succeeded (1916) in ousting him, but he was reinstated after the first World War (1919), and remained in this position until the crisis of 1929. Sieghart was an aggressive person, ready to surrender any political ideal in order to satisfy his ambition. The one idea to which he was devoted was that of the preservation of the Hapsburg monarchy. He published Die letzten Jahrzehnte einer Grossmacht (1932), partly an autobiography, partly a history of Austria from 1900 to 1914. SIEGMEISTER, ELIE, composer and conductor, b. New York city, 1909. He graduated from Columbia University, and studied music principally at the Juilliard Graduate School, New York city, and at the École Normale de Musique, Paris. For a short period he conducted the Manhattan Chorus, and in 1940 founded and directed the American Ballad Singers. Siegmeister gave courses on the history of music at Brooklyn College and at the Roerich Museum. He composed music for orchestra, chorus, and chamber music ensembles which was performed by many lead Sketch of the ancient synagogue at Siena ing musical organizations. He is author of Music and Society, and (with Olin Downes) edited A Treasury of American Song. SIENA, city in Tuscany, Italy, with a total population of 48,000, including 150 Jews (1938). An organized Jewish community existed there as early as 1229. During the 14th cent. Jewish bankers in Siena were permitted to do business and to own real estate. In 1439 the Jew badge was introduced into Siena, but Jewish bankers were not required to wear it. Despite the indignation of the population against the Jewish money lenders, despite the preaching of Bernardino of Siena against the Jewish money trade (at the beginning of the 15th cent.), and despite the founding of a municipal pawn shop (1472), the privileges of the Jews with respect to the conduct of financial transactions were not withdrawn during the whole period of the republic. They were not abolished even when Cosimo I became duke of Florence (1555). But as soon as this duke became grand duke of Tuscany (1571) he forbade Jewish money transactions and banished the Jews to the ghetto. They now lived solely by commerce. During the 18th cent. the wool business was exclusively in the hands of Jews; some of the Jews, however, were engaged in the weaving industry. Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo (1765-90) annulled a series of restrictions against the Jews. Complete freedom was brought about by French sovereignty in 1799, yet in the course of a rebellion in the same year thirteen Jews were burned to death in the public market by the mob, which exclaimed, "Viva Maria!" The restoration of the grand duchy forced the Jews back into their previous dire circumstances (1799-1807). The second period of the French dominion 1808-14) gave them temporary freedom. Full freedom was obtained by them after the unification of Siena with the kingdom of Piedmont (1859), which became the kingdom of Italy. The small but beautiful synagogue of Siena was built in 1786. Lit.: Mengozzi, Il Monte dei Paschi di Siena; Zoller, in Rivista israelitica, vol. 7, pp. 138, 191, 240; vol. 8, pp. The figure of Moses at the well in the ghetto of Siena 30, 65; Cassuto, Umberto, in Hatzofeh, vol. 8, p. 36; Lunario israelitico per l'anno 5698; Friedenwald, Harry, "Jewish Physicians in Italy," Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 28 (1922) 191. SIFRA ("book"), Halachic Midrash to Leviticus, and therefore known also by the latter's Hebrew title, Torath Kohanim. A part of the section dealing with the Parashah Kedoshim is Haggadic. The book is called also Sifre Debe Rab, which has led some to ascribe it to Abba Aricha, who is called Rab; however, Malbim has shown that it was edited probably by Hiyya, and Debe Rab means merely "of the academy." The book is definitely from the school of Akiba, although it is prefaced by the thirteen hermeneutical rules of his rival, Ishmael. It is a compilation of earlier works which perhaps bore the same name; one of them is known to have consisted of nine sections, as reported in an account given by Simeon ben Judah Hanasi. Its later form consisted of fourteen sections, divided into further sub-sections. The first edition of the Sifra was that of Venice (1545); editions of modern times are those of Malbim (Bucharest, 1860), I. H. Weiss (Vienna, 1862), and M. Friedmann (a part, Breslau, 1915). Lit.: Horovitz, S., in Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pp. 330-32; Moore, G. F., Judaism, vol. 1, pp. 140-42. SIKARIKON SIFRE ("books"), Halachic Midrash to Numbers and Deuteronomy; it is known also as Sifre Debe Rab, which presumably means the Sifre of the academy. The work is not uniform in character, as the portion dealing with Deut. 12 to 26 is evidently from a compiler entirely different from that of the remainder of the book. There is a large amount of Haggadic material, especially in the part dealing with Deuteronomy. The portion dealing with Numbers is based on two Midrash compilations, one from the school of Ishmael and one from the school of Simeon ben Yohai; it resembles in many respects the Mechilta of Rabbi Ishmael. The portion dealing with Deuteronomy differs both in arrangement and in the names of the authorities which it cites for the opinions. It is ascribed to the schools of Akiba and Simeon. The Sifre has come down to modern times in a somewhat defective state as compared to the Mechilta or Sifra. Citations made from it by the Amoraim are now missing, and even passages cited by Rashi are not to be found in the present editions. The first printed edition of the Sifre was that of Venice (1545). A new edition was made by M. Friedmann (Vienna, 1864). S. Horovitz began a definitive edition of which the first part (Corpus Tannaiticum, Section 3, Part 3, Siphre d'be Rab, Siphre ad Numeros adjecto Siphre zutta) was issued during his lifetime (Leipzig, 1917); the remainder was edited by Louis Finkelstein from Horovitz' literary remains (1935). Lit.: Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pp. 332-33; Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 1 (1928), cols. 984-86. SIFRE ZUTA ("the little Sifre"), a lost Halachic Midrash on Numbers. It was in existence as late as the 13th cent. Maimonides knew of it under the title of Mechilta to Numbers; the Yalkut Shimeoni and the Midrash Hagadol have preserved larger fragments. S. Horovitz reconstructed the book on the basis of citations and fragments, and printed it together with his edition of the Sifre. All authorities agree that it comes from the school of Akiba and was compiled probably by the latter's pupil Eliezer ben Jacob. Lit.: Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pp. 333-34; Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 1 (1928), cols. 989-90. SIHON, king of the Amorites who ruled over that part of the Transjordan between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok; his capital was Heshbon. He opposed the entrance of the Israelites to Canaan and was defeated and slain by them at Jahaz (Num. 21:21-26), and his territory fell to the tribe of Reuben (Josh. 13:15-21). According to the rabbis, he was the brother of Og, king of Bashan. SIK, SÁNDOR, poet and educator, b. Budapest, 1889. As a student in Budapest he embraced the Roman Catholic faith and joined the Piarist Order. From 1911 on he taught at the Gymnasium of the Order in Budapest; later he was named professor of Hungarian literature in the University of Szeged. Sik was one of the leading Catholic poets in Hungary; his verse, his dramas and his devotional books were equally appreciated for their spirit and their esthetic value. A member of the Catholic Szent István Academy and of the leading literary societies, he occupied a distinguished position in Hungarian letters. His poetry included translations of the psalms; his dramas, Salamon király gyűrűje (The Ring of King Solomon); Alexius; Zrinyi; A boldog ember inge (The Happy Man's Shirt; 1930), treat of historical or symbolical-religious subjects. Among his books were Gárdonyi, Ady, Prohászka (1929), which dealt with religious inspiration underlying literary achievement, and Fekete kenyér (Black Bread; 1932). SIKARIKON, see AGRICULTURE (section 2). SILBERBUSCH SIKO, M. (Mayer Smilansky), Hebrew writer, b. Tolpino, province of Kiev, Russia, 1876. He was a brother of Moses Smilansky. After a first visit to Palestine in 1891-92, Siko returned to Palestine to live in 1912. His work, mostly short stories, appeared in various periodicals in Palestine and other countries. A collection of his stories was published in 1928. In 1943 he was living in Palestine. Siko was one of the leading Hebrew novelists in Russia at the beginning of the 20th cent. He ably and vividly described Jewish life in the Ukraine, the enthusiasm of the Hasidim, the idyllic innocence of the life of the Jewish people ("The Old Man of Shpola,” "Nahman of Shicotova," "Daughter of Israel" and other tales). He derived great satisfaction from describing Jewish weddings in which the participants forgot their drab present and joyously reveled. After the pogroms of Petliura and Denikin in the Ukraine (1920-21) he wrote a series of moving stories dealing with the acts of horror in that country ("The Scroll of Rosava," "Falling Birds" and others), in which the idyllic and joyful note of his earlier stories is replaced by the voice of spilt Jewish blood crying to heaven. Lit.: Klausner, Joseph, Kitzur Toledoth Hasafruth Haibrith Hahadashah (1934) 186. SIL-VARA (originally Gustav Silberer), critic and dramatist, b. Werschetz (Versecz), Banat, Hungary 1876; d. Vienna, 1938. From 1894 to 1914 he lived in England, where for many years he was literary correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse and the Ullstein papers in Berlin. At the beginning of the first World War he fought on the Russian front and was seriously wounded. In 1917 he was made press attaché with the Austrian legation in Stockholm. There he stayed until the fall of the monarchy, when he moved to Vienna. Sil-Vara's prose works include: Londoner Spaziergänge (1914); Kriegstagebuch aus Galizien (1915); Englische Staatsmänner (translated into five languages; 1916); a pacifist treatise, Warum kommt der Friede nicht zustande? (1932). He was successful as playwright. Die Frau von vierzig Jahren (1913); Es geht weiter, showing the breakdown of an empire after a lost war (1917); Die Mädchenjahre einer Königin, a comedy centering about young Queen Victoria of England and Albert of Coburg (1933). He won distinction also as translator of numerous English and American plays, notably works of Galsworthy, Pincro, Barker, Housman, Sutro and Lord Dunsany. Several of his plays were presented on the English stage, among them Caprice (in German, Mit der Liebe spielen) was produced by the Theatre Guild in New York city (1929). Lit.: Rittenberg, Louis, "Sil-Vara: Man of Paradoxes," American Hebrew, Jan. 4, 1929; Wer ist wer, Lexikon österreichischer Zeitgenossen (1937). SILANO, one of the earliest liturgical poets of Italy, rabbi in Venosa in the 9th cent. He is mentioned in the chronicle composed by Ahimaaz ben Paltiel of Oria in 1054, in connection with the following incident: An emissary of the Jerusalem academy came to Venosa to collect funds for the academy. He was invited to preach on the Sabbath, with Silano acting as interpreter, rendering into the vernacular the foreigner's Hebrew-Aramaic dialect. Silano did not relish being placed in an inferior position, and sought an opportunity to discredit the emissary. When a fight broke out in town on a market day and the women attacked the men with kitchen implements, Silano found his opportunity. He scratched out from the synagogue copy of the Midrash two lines of the following Sabbath's portion, substituting for them in Hebrew the following: "When men came in wagons, the women came out of their kitchens and beat the men with their fire forks." On the Sabbath the unsuspecting emissary read these words from the Midrash, and Silano mockingly explained that the Midrash had prophesied the recent unfortunate incident. The embarrassed and incensed foreigner, on his return to Jerusalem, related his experience to the scholars of the academy, who thereupon put Silano under a ban. Some time later a pious man from Italy came to Jerusalem with donations for the institutions of the Holy Land. Officiating at the academy during the Ten Days of Penitence, he chose a liturgical poem by Silano which won general approbation, and the ban was lifted. Like other stories in the Chronicle of Ahimaaz, this was declared by many scholars as pure fiction, the very existence of Silano being doubted. In 1933 Joseph Marcus discovered among the Genizah manuscripts of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York city the very poem which acted as reconciler between Silano and the Jerusalem rabbis. It is an alphabetic elegiac poem, in Kaliric style, lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, the persecutions and sufferings of the Jewish communities. Silano is also the author of the well-known liturgical poem included in the Neilah service of the Day of Atonement, "Enkath Mesaldecha." Lit.: Marcus, Joseph, "Studies in the Chronicle of Ahimaaz," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, vol. 5, pp. 85-91. SILBER, MENDEL, rabbi and author, b. Vilkomir, Lithuania, 1882. On his mother's side he was a descendant of Gabriel Riesser (1806-63), the noted champion of Jewish emancipation in Germany. He came to the United States in 1900. Silber received the A.B. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1904, and in the same year was ordained at the Hebrew Union College. The University of Denver awarded him the Ph.D. degree in 1914. After serving as rabbi of Congregation Emanuel, of Duluth, Minn. (1904-6), United Hebrew Congregation, St. Louis (1906-10), and Albert Congregation, Albuquerque, N. M. (1910-14), he was elected to the pulpit of Congregation Gates of Prayer, New Orleans, in 1914, serving until 1936, when he became rabbi emeritus. At Albuquerque, in addition to his rabbinical position, Silber served as professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico (1911-14) and as acting dean (1911-12), the first Jew to hold this position. From 1914 on he served on the boards of various New Orleans philanthropic and educational institutions. Silber served on the editorial staff of The Modern View under the pseudonym of Emes, and from 1915 to 1936 held a similar position with The Jewish Ledger. In 1903 he was associate editor of the Hebrew Union College Journal, and in the following year associate editor of the Hebrew Union College Annual. His published books include: Gaon of Wilna (1904); Jewish Achievement (1910); Ancient and Modern Modes of Burial (1912); The Origin of the Synagogue (1914); The Scripture Stories (4 vols., 1st ed., 1915; up to 1942 cighteen editions had been published); America in Hebrew Literature (Hebrew ed., 1928; English ed., 1929); Palestine-The Holy Land (1927). Silber was a contributor to this encyclopedia. SILBERBUSCH, DAVID ISAIAH, Hebrew and Yiddish writer, b. Zalesczyski, Poland, 1854; d. TelAviv, Palestine, 1936. His first story appeared in Hamabbit in 1877, after which he contributed frequently to Hebrew periodicals. His most important work is Dimath Ashukim (Tears of the Oppressed; 1887), describing the sufferings of the Jews in Roumania. Another noted story was Masseh Beishah Ahath (Story of a Woman; Vienna, 1923). He wrote also Yiddish sketches and stories, which were published under the title of Strechelach (Vienna, 1917), and are concerned principally with the war refugees. Silberbusch lived in Vienna from 1883 to near the end of his life, when he went to Tel-Aviv. His other writings included: Mahazoth Vesippurim (Cracow, 1905); Kethabim Nibharim (1920); Mipinkas Zichronothai, an autobiography (Tel-Aviv, 1936). SILBERGLEIT, ARTHUR, poet and critic, b. Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, 1886. He attended high school in Gleiwitz and then became an apprentice in a banking house in Breslau, where his writing talent was discovered by Martin Buber. He became editor of Osten, organ of the Breslau Dichterschule. He went to Berlin in 1906, where Fritz Engel invited him to the columns of the Berliner Tageblatt. When last heard of, he was still living in Berlin alone with his art. His poems are hymn-like, sombre unworldly songs in rhyme in prose flowing freely from his imagination. They were widely printed in numerous German-language newspapers and periodicals. Some of them appeared in the following collections: Flandern, experiences during the first World War (1915); Das Füllhorn Gottes (1919); Die Magd, a legend (1919); Der verlorene Sohn, poetry (1920); Alte Stadt (1921); Die Balalaika (1921); Das Farbenfest, poetry in prose (1922); Bajazzo Herbst (1929); Orpheus (part 1, 1931). His lyric poem Orpheus was ready for the printer in 1936; this is a collection of about 600 poems. Another work, Höre Israel, was also finished. The Nazis' accession to power stopped the publication of these works. Several of the poems appeared in Jewish papers (1933-38). SILBERGLEIT, HEINRICH, statistician, b. Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, 1858; d. Berlin, 1939. He studied mathematics in Breslau, Leipzig and Berlin, and political science in Giessen, where he graduated. From 1886 to 1890 he worked for the statistical office of the city of Berlin, then for thirteen years as director of the statistical office in Magdeburg. In 1903 Silbergleit returned to Berlin. He was director of the statistical office of the German capital in Berlin-Schoeneberg (1906-23). He delved mainly into population and professional problems. In 1912 he was invited to write the jubilee book on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Prussian Diet. After the first World War he did valuable work in collaboration with the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten in collecting material about the participation of German Jews in the first World War. Up to his very last days he was busy on a thesis concerning the problems of the professional structure of the Jewish population of Germany on the basis of the figures which had been made known by the German censuses in 1925 and 1935. Of his numerous writings the following are best known: Finanz statistik der Armenverwaltung von 130 deutschen Städten 1901-1905 (1908); Grundzüge der Krankheits- und Todesursachenstatistik (1903); Preussens Städte (1908); Säuglingssterblichkeit (1911); Das statistische Amt der Stadt Berlin 1862-1912 (1912); Zwanzig Jahre Leiter des statistischen Amtes der Stadt Berlin (written on the occasion of his retirement; 1923); Die Bevölkerungs- und Berufsstruktur der Juden im Deutschen Reich, a standard work (1930). He was also editor of vols. 30 through 34 of Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin. SILBERMANN, ELIEZER LIPMANN, founder of modern Hebrew journalism, b. Rossieny, Lithuania (or Königsberg, Germany), 1819; d. Lyck, East Prussia, 1882. While serving as a Shohet in Lyck, he founded the weekly, Hamaggid, in 1856, and continued with its publication until 1880. He was successful in combining a tendency toward assimilation with conservatism in religion. His readers were mostly Eastern European Jews. Of greater importance is the fact that he was a founder of the literary society Mekitze Nirda SILBERT mim (The Awakeners of the Sleeping), which from 1864 on published important earlier Hebrew books. Among its publications are Isaac Lampronti's Pahad Yitzhak (The Fear of Isaac), a Hebrew lexicon, legal opinions and responsa of the Geonim. Lit.: Lippe, C. D., Bibliographisches Lexikon, vol. 1, P. 451 et seq.; Meisl, J., Geschichte der Juden in Polen und Russland, vol. 3, pp 388-89. SILBERSTEIN, LUDWIK, physicist, b. Warsaw, Poland, 1872. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin (1894), was an assistant in the department of physics at the University of Lemberg, Galicia (1895-97), and a lecturer in mathematics and physics at the University of Bologna, Italy (1899-1904). In 1904 he became lecturer at the University of Rome. Silberstein went to the United States in 1920 and there became a research physicist of the Eastman Kodak Company. He lectured on relativity and gravitation at the Universities of Cornell, Toronto and Chicago. His writings include Vectorial Mechanics (1913; 2nd ed., 1926); The Theory of Relativity (1914; 2nd ed., 1924); Simplified Method of Tracing Rays Through Lenses (1918); Elements of Electromagnetic Theory of Light (1918); Elements of Vector Algebra (1919); Theory of General Relativity and Gravitation (1922); The Size of the Universe (1930); and Causality (1933). SILBERSTEIN-ÖTVÖS, ADOLF, esthete and journalist, b. Pest (Budapest), 1845; d. Budapest, 1899. He studied medicine in the University of Leipzig which, after courses in philosophy at Berlin and Heidelberg, conferred upon him the Ph.D. degree. At that time he was already a contributor to the Leipziger Tageblatt and Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Next he became editor of Fremdenblatt and Dramaturgische Blätter at Vienna, and of Temesvárer Zeitung (187071) in Hungary. During the following years SilbersteinÖtvös wrote editorials and reviews for more than a dozen leading Budapest newspapers and periodicals, in both German and Hungarian. Silberstein-Ötvös published in book form, among others, Philosophische Briefe an eine Frau (1873); Dichtkunst des Aristoteles (1876); Bibel der Natur (1887); Im Strome der Zeit (4 vols., 1894-95). But his masterpieces were his feuilletons written for the newspapers. He translated classics of Hungarian literature into German. SILBERT, BEN, painter and etcher, b. Gorki, Russia, 1893; d. Florida, 1939. Coming as a young man to the United States, Silbert was a pupil of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also studied art in Paris, a city where he lived for several years. The first important recognition of his talent in the United States resulted from the enthusiasm shown by Marie Sterner, who exhibited his work at her New York Galleries, at a time when the artist was impoverished. Through Marie Sterner, Silbert came to the attention of Florence N. Levy, formerly director of the Baltimore Museum of Art and supervisor of the New York Regional Art Council. As a consequence, numerous collectors of New York and Baltimore acquired his paintings, and he was commissioned to paint the portrait of the internationally known philanthropist and collector, Jacob Epstein, as well as other portraits. Silbert is best known for his water colors, which are sensitive and delightful achievements, original in treatment. They are to be found in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukce Art Institute and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Silbert was also decidedly talented as an etcher. Examples of his work in this field have been acquired by the Honolulu Academy of Art and by the Museum of Cahors for the French National Collection. Articles and illustrations by Silbert appeared in the press of France and Germany, as well as of America. GEORGE S. HELLMAN. |