Rosenthal Herman (Hermann) (1843, Friedrichstadt, Courland Governorate — 1917) — philologist, poet, and the first head of the Slavic and Baltic Department of the New York Public Library.
Herman Rosenthal studied in Bauske and Jakobstadt. From the age of sixteen he translated Russian poets into German, including several poems by N. Nekrasov, and composed his own poetry.
For some time he attended lectures in botany and natural sciences at the University of Dorpat. From 1869 he worked in publishing houses in Ukraine — in Kremenchug, later in Smela and Kyiv. During this period he frequently published in the Jewish press (the newspaper “Hameliẓ”). In 1870 he published a collection of poems in German, and in 1872 a humorous novella “Die wunderliche Kur” (“The Curious Cure”).
As a member of the Red Cross Society he participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and was awarded the medal of the Russian Red Cross for outstanding service. After the war he returned to Kyiv, where he published the daily newspaper “Zarya” and became a member of the St Petersburg Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia.
In 1881, fleeing the anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine, he emigrated to the United States. There he helped organise agricultural communes of Russian Jews in the states of Louisiana and South Dakota. In 1885 he moved to New York, where he worked in the book trade.
In 1888–1890 he served as chief statistician in Edison’s Electric Company and supervised work connected with the establishment of an agricultural colony in New Jersey. Later, on behalf of a railway company, he undertook a ten-month journey to Japan, Korea, and China to study possibilities for industrial expansion into these countries. The results of his survey were published in 1893 and reported to the President of the United States and the government.
Afterwards Rosenthal held several government posts, including the position of head of the reception service at Ellis Island, then the principal port of entry for immigrants to the United States.
In the late 1890s he was recommended by Jacob Schiff, the prominent industrialist and philanthropist, to John Billings, director of the New York Public Library. In 1898 he became the first head of the Russian department (later the Slavic department) that he organised in this world-famous library, and he directed it for many years until his death.
He published regularly in New York newspapers, including the German “New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold”, the English “Outlook”, and others. From 1900 he was a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Encyclopedia and co-editor of the monthly Hebrew journal “Ha-Modia le-Ḥodashim” (“The Monthly Observer”), devoted mainly to American Jewry.
He devoted much effort to translating poetry and prose from Russian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Old Church Slavonic, Latvian, French, Italian, Latin, Danish, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Among his published works are German translations of Ecclesiastes and The Song of Songs, and the English translation of H. Ganz’s book “The Land of Riddles.” His original poems and his German translations were regarded as significant poetic achievements.
Lit.: Materials Relating to Herman Rosenthal (1843—1917): First Chief of the Slavonic Division. New York: The Library, 1992.