LAMBERT, MAYER

LAMBERT, MAYER (1863–1930), French Oriental scholar and Hebraist. Lambert was born in Metz, the descendant of a long line of rabbis: his grandfather Lion Mayer (1787–1862) and his great-grandfather Aaron Worms (1754–1836) had served as chief rabbis in Metz. He studied first at Metz, then at the Ecole Rabbinique (Séminaire Israélite) and Sorbonne University in Paris. From 1887 he lectured on Arabic and Syriac and later on Hebrew at the Ecole Rabbinique and taught Hebrew at the Ecole Normale Orientale (Teachers' Training College) of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1903 Lambert began teaching Hebrew and Syriac at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He worked in close association with joseph derenbourg . Among Lambert's many published works in addition to numerous contributions to the Revue des Etudes Juives, the Journal Asiatique, and other periodicals are Eléments de Grammaire Hébraique (1890); Commentaire sur le Séfer Yesira; ou livre de la Création par Saadiah (1891); Saadiah's version of and commentary on Proverbs, text and French translation (with J. Derenbourg), Oeuvres complètes de Saadia. Traduction des Proverbes (1894); and Glossaire hébreu-français du XIIIme siècle (with L. Brandin, 1905). He contributed to the publication of Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum and also participated in the French translation of the Bible issued by the French rabbinate. Three parts of his major work Traité de Grammaire Hébraïque were published posthumously (1931–38). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Weill, in: REJ, 91 (1931), 113–34, incl. list of his works.