Max Weinreich (1894–1969) was a Yiddish linguist, historian, and editor. Born in Kuldiga (Latvia), Weinreich made his debut as a Yiddish writer at the age of 13, and became a contributor to various Yiddish, Russian-Jewish, German-Jewish, and later Anglo-Jewish publications His doctoral thesis on the history of Yiddish philology was published in excerpts both in its German original in the University of Marburg's abstracts of dissertations as well as in Yiddish (Shtaplen ("Rungs") 1923). Although partially blinded in an anti-Semitic assault, Weinreich continued studying all his life. Early in his career Weinreich became a prominent educator in various capacities, ranging from the teaching of Yiddish literature at the Vilna Yiddish Teachers' Seminary to serving as leader of a Yiddish scouting movement Di Bin ("The Bee"). The first Yiddish professor at a U.S. university, Weinreich taught Yiddish language, literature, and folklore at the College of the City of New York. He was instrumental in giving Yiddish linguistics a solid, scholarly footing. Co-founder of the YIVO Institute (1925), and YIVO's guiding spirit, he was largely responsible for its achieving a world-wide reputation. As director of YIVO's Research Training Division and organizer of its graduate school, Weinreich worked hard and successfully to educate young Yiddish scholars, the most outstanding of whom was his son, Uriel Weinreich. Weinreich's wide array of books and studies include the five-volume Geshikhte fun der Yidisher Shprakh ("History of the Yiddish Language") and Hitler's Professors (in Yiddish, 1947; in English, 1946)—probably the most documented indictment of German scholarship during the Nazi regime. Prominent among his other works are Shturemvint ("Tempest," 1927), sketches on 17th-century Jewish history; Bilder fun der Yidisher Literatur-Geshikhte ("Sketches from the History of Yiddish Literature," 1928); Der Veg tsu Undzer Yugnt ("The Road to our Youth," 1935), a socio-psychological study of Jewish youth in Eastern Europe; Di Shvartse Pintelekh ("The Black Dots," 1939), a history of alphabets.

Weinreich translated Homer, Freud, and Ernst Toller into Yiddish. He was editor of the periodicals Yidishe Filologye (1924–26), Filologishe Shriftn (1926–29), Yivo-Bleter (1931–50), and of the critical edition of S. Ettinger's works, N. Stutchkoff's Oyster fun der Yidisher Shprakh ("Thesaurus of the Yiddish Language"), Y. L. Cahan's Shtudyes Vegn Yidisher Folkshafung ("Studies in Yiddish Folklore"), and Yidishe Folkslider mit Melodyes ("Yiddish Folksongs with Melodies").

Note from verso of title page: “The present survey was concluded on March 15, 1946. It appears in Yiddish in the Yivo-Bleter, Journal of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, Vol. XXVII, 1 and 2. In view of its general interest, it is being offered also in an English translation.”