Mark Wischnitzer

Mark Wischnitzer was born in 1882 in Rivne

Mark Wischnitzer was born on May 10, 1882, in Rivne, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Lev Wischnitzer, was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. He first thought of rabbinical studies but chose another path.

He studied at the University of Vienna and the University of Berlin. He earned his doctorate in 1906. From 1908 to 1913 he edited the history section of the Russian-language Jewish Encyclopedia.

In World War I he served as an officer in the Austrian army. After the war he worked at the London embassy of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1921 he moved to Berlin, where he was Secretary General of the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden and edited for the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

In 1922 he and his wife founded Rimon, an art journal in Hebrew, and a twin journal in Yiddish called Milgroim. In 1938 the family moved to Paris, where he was a research associate of the Joint. In 1941 he moved to the United States and became a research associate for the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds.

From 1948 he taught Jewish history at the graduate school of Yeshiva University. He married art historian Rachel Wischnitzer in 1912, and their son Leonard James was born in 1924. He died of a heart attack in Tel Aviv on October 15, 1955.