Dr. Schwarz was a scholar and bibliographer. Born in Karlsruhe, Schwarz followed his father in Jewish scholarship. Graduating from the Israelitisch-theologische Lehranstalt and the University of Vienna, he was appointed district rabbi and teacher of Jewish religion in that city, but devoted much of his time to scholarship. As a young man he was attracted by Herzl and the Zionist movement and contributed regularly to their official organ, Die Welt. When the Nazis invaded and usurped power in Austria, Schwarz was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. Broken in body and soul, he was able to leave for Erez Israel where he died soon afterward.

His interest in Jewish bibliography and the study of Hebrew manuscripts owed much to the influence of A. Ratti, later Pope Pius XI, whom he met on a visit to the Ambrosiana Library at Milan. As a model for his bibliographical work he took M. Steinschneider. Die hebraischen Handscriften was very favorably received and Schwarz was encouraged to publish a comprehensive catalog which appeared in 1925 (Die hebraeischen Handschriften der Nationalbibliotek in Wien). His detailed scholarly description of the 212 manuscript collections and 160 fragments represented a new and exemplary standard of bibliographical scholarship. This was followed by Die hebraeischen Handschriften in Oesterreich (vol. 1, 1931), describing 283 manuscript collections, the greater part of which belonged to the Vienna Jewish community library (250), the rest to other Jewish public and private collections as well as to some monasteries. This catalog remained unfinished, though the author had prepared up to no. 302 for press.