Lazăr Șăineanu (, also spelled Șeineanu, born Eliezer Schein;Leopold, p.383, 417 Francisized Lazare Sainéan, , Alexandru Mușina, "Țara turcită" , in România Literară, Nr. 19/2003 or Sainéanu; April 23, 1859 – May 11, 1934) was a philologist, linguist, folklorist and cultural historian born in the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, today part of Romania. A specialist in Oriental and Romance studies, as well as a Germanist, he was primarily known for his contribution to Yiddish and Romanian philology, his work in evolutionary linguistics, and his activity as a literary and philological comparatist. Șăineanu also had innovative contributions to the investigation and anthologizing of Romanian folklore, placed in relation to Balkan and East Central European traditions, as well as to the historical evolution of Romanian in a larger Balkan context, and was a celebrated early contributor to Romanian lexicography. His main initiatives in these fields are a large corpus of collected fairy tales and the 1896 Dicționarul universal al limbii române ("The Universal Dictionary of the Romanian Language"), which have endured among the most popular Romanian scientific works.
A member of the non-emancipated Jewish-Romanian community, Lazăr Șăineanu stood for the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) ideas, and opted in favour of Jewish assimilation into the Romanian mainstream. His repeated requests for naturalisation were eventually unsuccessful, but propelled him to the center of a political conflict which opposed the antisemitic current to the advocates of tolerance. In 1901, Șăineanu and his family left the Kingdom of Romania and resettled in France, where the scholar lived until his death. Becoming known for his pioneering work to the study of Middle French and his investigations into the origins of argot, as well as for his critical essays on 16th-century writer François Rabelais, he was a recipient of the Institut de France's Volney Prize in 1908. The son-in-law of publisher Ralian Samitca, Șăineanu was survived by his brother Constantin, a noted lexicographer, journalist and polemicist.
Biography
Early life Eliezer Schein (whose name was originally rendered in Romanian as Lazăr Șain Iordan Datcu, "Lazăr Șăineanu" , in România Literară, Nr. 15/2009 Laszlo Alexandru, "Un savant călcat în picioare (I)", in Tribuna, Nr. 151, December 2008 or Shain) A. Zimbler, Lazăr Șăineanu , profile at the Bucharest Jewish Community Center; retrieved August 27, 2009 was born in the city of Ploiești to impoverished Jewish-Romanian residents. His father, Moisi, was a house painter and amateur artist, who, by the time his son was sixteen, had left to work in the United States. Eliezer studied with private tutors from the age of 5, and was admitted into regular school at the age of 10, when he entered second grade. Moisi Schein died shortly after returning to Romania, leaving Eliezer the sole provider for his mother and six siblings.Sainéan (1901), p.9 He was however able to pass his Baccalaureate, with a thesis on writer and theorist Ion Heliade Rădulescu: Ioan Eliad Rădulescu ca grămătic și filolog ("Ioan Eliad Rădulescu as a Grammarian and Philologist").
By 1881, having been exempted from his compulsory term in the Romanian Land Forces as the eldest son of a widow, the young man went on to study at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters.Leopold, p.383; Nastasă, p.105 Taught and regarded with admiration by academic Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu,Sainéan (1901), passim Șăineanu was primarily a student of etymology, stylistics and semantics (which formed the basis of his first three studies, published in 1882 and 1887). He published his first study, the 1883 Câteva specimene de etimologie populară română ("A Few Samples of Romanian Folk Etymology"), in Hasdeu's magazine Columna lui Traian. By then, Șăineanu had begun contributing to Anuar pentru Israeliți ("The Yearbook for Israelites"), the Hebraist magazine edited by his friends and fellow scholars Moses Gaster and Moses Schwartzfeld, which mainly published articles on Jewish history and espoused a moderate assimilationist agenda (Haskalah).Măriuca Stanciu, "A Promoter of the Haskala in Romania–Moses Gaster" , in the University of Bucharest's Studia Hebraica I , 2003 Gaster also sent Șăineanu's various studies on folklore and linguistics also published in Revista pentru Istorie, Arheologie și Filologie, a review founded and led by Romanian historian Grigore Tocilescu. The direct contacts between the two scholars ended in 1885, when Gaster was expelled from Romania for protesting against the antisemitic measures condoned by the National Liberal Party cabinet of Ion Brătianu. Laszlo Alexandru, "Un savant călcat în picioare (II)", in Tribuna, Nr. 152, January 2009Sainéan (1901), p.1-2
The 1887 Încercare asupra semasiologiei române ("Essay on Romanian Semasiology"), presented by Schein as his graduation paper,Sainéan (1901), p.1 was retrospectively commended by ethnologist Iordan Datcu for its innovative value, and argued by the same commentator to have attracted universally positive reactions from "objective critics". According to Șăineanu's account, it followed closely after semasiology itself had been established as an independent branch by the French academic Michel Bréal. It reportedly earned him the praise of a future adversary the Education Minister and National Liberal politician Dimitrie Sturdza, who allegedly recommended him to study abroad, reassuring him that, unlike in Gaster's case, "we will receive you back with open arms." Printed by the Romanian Academy's press and prefaced by Hasdeu, Încercare earned Șăineanu the Manoah Hillel scholarship, amounting to 5,000 lei in gold.
Using this grant, he furthered his studies in France, at the University of Paris, under Bréal, Gaston Paris and Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke, and later at the École Spéciale des Langues Orientales, where he specialized in the study of Oriental languages. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig, in the German Empire,Nastasă, p.105, 203; Sainéan (1901), p.2, 9, 30 his dissertation receiving an award from the Institut de France. According to historian Lucian Nastasă, the scholar's choice was confirming a common practice of Romanians, who opted to bridge the gap between Francophilia and Germanophilia by frequenting venues in both countries.Nastasă, p.105, 203 As Șăineanu wrote to Gaster, he had decided in favor of the "intellectual center" Leipzig because Karl Brugmann, "the leading representative of present-day linguistics", worked and taught there.Nastasă, p.203 He studied with both Brugmann and August Leskien, earning much praise for his work and the right to take his diploma under special circumstances (which took into consideration his previous works, and did not require him to research a full-sized new thesis). Șăineanu was pleased with the scientific rigor of his German teachers, but believed the system to suffer greatly in the matter of pedagogy, and considered French academics much more talented in this respect. The young scholar published two works during the interval: Legenda Meșterului Manole la grecii moderni ("The Meșterul Manole Legend among the Modern Greeks") and his Ph.D. thesis on Romanian folklore, Les Jours d'emprunt ou les jours de la vieille ("The Borrowed Days or The Old Woman's Days").Sainéan (1901), p.2 The latter was hosted by Gaston Paris' journal Romania.
Beginnings as a teacher He returned to Romania as a teacher of Latin and Romanian, pursuing a career path which eventually earned him a position at Bucharest University.Sainéan (1901), p.2sqq He was given employment as a high school teacher, and obtained an unpaid university position as assistant to Hasdeu, head of the Department of Letters.Nastasă, p.105, 203; Sainéan (1901), p.2-3, 7, 17, 38 Nastasă, who notes Șăineanu's enthusiasm for his work, writes: "His opening lecture for the Comparative Philology course—like all of his work—is a proof of erudition more or less unparalleled within the areas of Romania."Nastasă, p.105
Despite his qualifications, Șăineanu was unable to advance professionally because of his non-citizen status.Sainéan (1901), p.3-4 The young researcher was also appointed substitute teacher of Latin in Bucharest Gheorghe Lazăr High School by an administrative decision of the Education Ministry, taken despite the antisemitic protestations of Undersecretary Ștefan Michăilescu.Sainéan (1901), p.3-5 His assignment to the post followed the intercession of his friend and former teacher, the writer and archeologist Alexandru Odobescu,Nastasă, p.105; Sainéan (1901), p.3 and inaugurated a short period during which Șăineanu focused on writing textbooks.Sainéan (1901), p.3
Shortly afterward, Conservative Minister Titu Maiorescu, leader of the influential literary club Junimea and himself one of Lazăr Șăineanu's former professors, appointed him to a position at the university, within the History and Literature Department of V. A. Urechia.Nastasă, p.106, 203; Sainéan (1901), p.4-7 The latter, an outspoken antisemite and prominent member of the opposition National Liberal group, reacted strongly against the measure, launching that claim that, unlike an ethnic Romanian, a Jew "could never awaken in the mind and heart of the young generation the image of our past laden with lessons for the future". According to Șăineanu's own recollection, he had not himself asked for the university appointment, and suspected that it was offered to him in the first place so that the Gheorghe Lazăr position would be assigned to "a favorite of the day, the former tutor of Prince Ferdinand."Sainéan (1901), p.5 He nevertheless noted that Urechia had a conflict of interest when opposing his appointment, given that he had designed the department around his own chairmanship, and that, with the aid of University of Iași academic Alexandru D. Xenopol, he had set in motion a set of "miserable intrigues" to maintain his hold on the faculty.Sainéan (1901), p.6-7
Șăineanu also commented on the alleged oscillations of Tocilescu, who, after agreeing to lead the History section upon its recommended division, and supporting his Jewish colleague for chairmanship of the Letters section, threw his support behind Urechia.Sainéan (1901), p.7 Nastasă, who mentions the scheming on the part of Urechia and Tocilescu, cites Moses Gaster's letter to Șăineanu, which defined Tocilescu as a double-crosser, "a filthy twicer and a bloodsucker".Nastasă, p.106 The complications eventually led Șăineanu to present his resignation, and Maiorescu to accept it. He recalled: "Every reasonable man would doubtlessly assume that [...] the resentment Mr. Urechia held against this unfortunate nomination would have been appeased. To assume thus would mean not to know the person or the Romanian social environment well enough, for barely two months had passed before grandiose patriotism again displayed the effects of its hatred."
The young linguist also contributed to Convorbiri Literare, a magazine edited by Junimea. It was there that, in 1887, he published his study on the Khazars' possible presence in Romanian folklore: Jidovii sau Tătarii sau Uriașii ("The Jews or the Tatars or the Uriași").Adrian Majuru, "Khazar Jews. Romanian History and Ethnography" (excerpts), in Plural Magazine, Nr. 27/2006Sainéan (1901), p.18-21 Produced on the basis of folkloric surveys in Muntenian and Oltenian localities such as Dragoslavele, Schitu Golești and Radomir, the study was later used against him by his political adversaries, who resented the implications it seemed to carry for the traditional relations between Jews and Romanians.
Scholarly prominence and early naturalization efforts