SZANTO, SIMON:

By: Isidore Singer, Frederick T. Haneman

Hungarian journalist; born at Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary, Aug. 23, 1819; died in Vienna Jan. 17, 1882. He was a son of Rabbi Meïr Szanto, and when only ten years of age lost both parents. He received his education at the yeshibot at Lakenbach and Gross-Jenikau (Bohemia), the public school at Prague, the gymnasium at Presburg, and the University of Prague, studying philosophy and Jewish theology under S. J. L. Rapoport. In 1845 Szanto went to Vienna, where he founded (1849), together with his brother Josef, a Jewish school, of which he was the director. Later he was appointed docent at the Theologische Lehranstalt at Vienna.

In 1861 Szanto founded, together with his brother-in-law Pick, the weekly journal "Die Neuzeit," of which he became sole editor after having been associated for a short time with Kompert. For a time he was editor also of Busch's "Jahrbuch für Israeliten," and of J. von Wertheimer's "Jahrbuch für Israeliten." In 1864 he was appointed Hebrew interpreter at the juridical courts of Vienna, and in 1869 supervisor of religious instruction at the Jewish schools of Vienna.

Szanto contributed numerous feuilletons and essays to various periodicals. For Busch's "Jahrbuch für Israeliten" he wrote "Bilder aus Alexandriens Vorzeit"; for Wertheimer's "Jahrbuch," "Schullehrers Paradoxa" and "Fahrende Juden"; and for the "Wiener Zeitung," "Sturmpetition eines Pädagogen," these articles appearing over the pen-names "Dr. Unbefangen," and "S. Pflüger." He contributed also to "Ost und West," "Bohemia," the "Orient," the "Tagespresse," and the "Frauenzeitung." He was the author also of the poem "Der Juden Vaterland" (Vienna, 1848).

S. F. T. H.