Majer Samuel Bałaban

Meir Balaban or Majer Samuel Bałaban (, 18 Adar 637 – 26 December 1942, Tevet 702) was a historian of Polish and Galician Jews, and the founder of Polish Jewish historiography.

Early years Balaban was born in 1877 in the city of Lviv (then known as Lemberg in Austria-Hungary's centre of East Galicia). He received a traditional education at home and traditional Jewish schooling (Hebrew language and Bible study) in a cheder.

Biography and initial studies on Jewish history He studied law, philosophy and history at Lviv University. He accidentally encountered materials on the history of Jews in Kraków, and on the request of the Kraków Jewish kahal, he wrote the first volume of "The History of Jews in Cracow and Kazimiria 1304-1655" (Kraków, 1912). It gave him some reputation in Lviv University. Balaban then won a high ministry scholarship, and departed for a long scientific trip to Poznań, Berlin and Gdańsk. He stayed for several months in Kraków collecting materials for the second volume of the history of Kraków Jews. Simultaneously he started the publication "The history of Jewish system in Poland" in "Evreiskaia Starina" ("Jewish Old Times", as translated from Russian) magazine. He taught in different schools in the Lviv region and Lviv combining studying with teaching and research. He spent the first year of World War I in Vienna teaching at the gymnasium for Galician refugees. The next three years, he spent in Lublin as a referent (reporter) on Jewish matters by the Austrian General Government. At these posts, he organised many Jewish kahals and gymnasiums. Together with Ozjasz Thon and Dr. Moses Schorr, Balaban was one of the founders of the Institute of Jewish Sciences in Warsaw. Here Balaban taught Jewish history and led the historical seminar which issued many works on the history of Jews in Poland and in particular in the Polish kingdom. Balaban had also published "The history of Jews in Galicia" in 1916. Since 1903 Balaban led the review of the bibliography of the history of Jews in Poland in the Polish historical magazine "Kwartalnik historyczny" ("History Quarterly"). During nine years Balaban had been administering the Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary (1920–1929) and for 1920-1921 he had been also the rector of the gymnasium "Askola".

The fate of Balaban was also tragic like Schorr's one. He died in the Warsaw Ghetto on 26 December 1942. court physician of John III Sobieski, Chwila, Lvov, 4 March 1920. Balaban, M. Z wczorajszego Lwowa (From the past of Lvov), Chwila (Zionist daily), Lviv, July - December 1925. Balaban, M. Chassidica. Przeglad literatury o chasydyzmie z lat ostatnich (Hassidica. Review of recent literature about the Hassidism). Chwila (Zionist daily), Lviv, Daily no.: 7--9, 11, 12, 14, 16–19 July 1932. Balaban, M. Budowa i ornamentyka synagog w Polsce (Structure and ornamentation of synagogues in Poland), Chwila (Zionist daily), Lviv, 30 December 1925. Balaban, M. Do dziejow Ormian lwowskich. Traktat o asymilacyi (Concerning the history of Armenians in Lvov. Treatise about the assimilation), Chwila (Zionist daily), Lviv, 14 January 1921. Balaban, M. Napoleon a Żydzi (Napoleon and the Jews), Chwila (Zionist daily), Lviv, 30 December 1925. Balaban, M. Żydzi polsko-litewscy w pierwszym roku wojny europejskiej 1914-1915. Przegląd bibliograficzny (Polish Lithuanian Jews in the first year of European War 1914-1915. Bibliographical review). In "Chwila", August - September 1922. Balaban, M. Auto da Fe w Lwowie w r. 1728 (Auto da Fe in Lvov in 1728), Chwila, 14 January 1921. Balaban, M. Drukarnie hebrajskie w Żółkwi i Lwowie (Hebrew printing shops in Żółkiew and Lvov). In "Chwila" (Zionist daily), Lviv, 11 April 1920. Balaban, M. Nauka Żydowska w Golusie i jej dom w Ojczyźnie (Jewish Science in the Dispersion and its House in Motherland) in "Chwila" (Zionist daily), Lviv, 2 April 1925, pp. 9–11. Balaban, M. Żydowska biblioteka gminna we Lwowie. Wspomnienie. (Jewish Communal Library in Lvov - Recollections) in "Chwila" (Zionist daily), Lviv, 7 January 1922, p. 2. Balaban, M. Chassidica, przegląd literatury o chasydyzmie z lat ostatnich (Chassidica, the review of the literature on Hassidism from the last years) in "Chwila" (Zionist daily), Lvov, August–September 1922. Balaban, M. Korespondencja Lublinera z Lewelem (Correspondence of Lubliner with Lewel) in "Miesięcznik Żydowski" (Poland's Jewish monthly), no. 4, 1933, pp. 289–321. Balaban, M. Zalmaw, burmistrz kahalu w Drohobyczu w pol. XVII w. (Zalmaw - Jewish community mayor of Drohobycz) in "Dziennik Polski" (Polish daily), January 1900.