Haim Nachman Shapira — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Professor Haim Nachman Shapira (1895-1943) was an educator, a lecturer at the University of Kovno, a researcher of Eastern Studies, Hebrew literature and Jewish philosophy; he authored textbooks, was a translator and a Zionist activist. He was also a member of the central council of the Tarbut network of schools in Lithuania and was head of the Department of Education and Culture in the Kovno Ghetto.

Haim Nachman Shapira was born in Smolevichi (then, in the Minsk region in the Jewish Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire; now White Russia) in 1895. His father was Rabbi Avraham Dover Shapira (the last rabbi of Kovno and one of the greatest poskim of the 20^th century and his grandfather, Rabbi Yeruham Yehuda Leib Perlman (Hagadol Miminsk). As a child, he studied in the heder and Torah academies. He was one of the first teachers at the Reali Hebrew high school in Kovno during the time of Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Carlebach.

From 1921 to 1925 he studied Semitic linguistics, Eastern studies and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Vilna. He received a doctorate in 1925.

In 1926 he began working at the University of Vilna in the Department of Semitic Studies, which had been established in 1922. He was appointed head of the department and held that position until 1940 when it was closed by order of the Soviet occupation. He was a lecturer in Semitic languages and gave courses in Hebrew and Arabic literature and the Koran. The Department also trained teachers for Jewish schools. In 1932, by presidential order, he was awarded the rank of docent (associate professor). He was transferred to the University of Vilna in 1940 and became a full professor. He was active in Zionist affairs, one of the heads of the Hebrew movement in Vilna, a member of the General Zionists council, a member of the central committee of Tarbut, chairman of the Mapu library and was a delegate at several Zionist Congresses.

He published scientific, literary and current affairs articles and stories in leading Jewish publications; he also wrote a book about Avraham Mapu and Lev Neidus. In 1941, when the Germans occupied Kovno, he was imprisoned in the Kovno Ghetto. While he was there, he was the educational and cultural director, worked tirelessly to set up an elementary school, a crafts school and a library.  He also worked on a twelve-volume History of Modern Hebrew Literature. However, only one volume on the literature of the Enlightenment was published in Germany; the second volume had already been prepared but it was lost in the ghetto and the rest of the material was hidden somewhere in the ghetto but never recovered. The essays he wrote in Rashi script on grammar and the Mesora were also lost. His research focused on the struggle between earthly nationalism and spiritual nationalism. According to his viewpoint, earthly nationalism only regards political independence whereas spiritual nationalism that he called "personal nationalism" regards the existence of the Jewish people through religion and Hebrew culture.

In early December, 1943 he and his family were led to the Ninth Fort where, a few days later, they were all exterminated. After his death his friends prepared a publication in his memory entitled Yatmut (Orphanhood) which was edited by the Zionist underground movement Brit Zion.

His younger brother, Dr. Noah Shapira (1900-1964) was a chemist and educator in Lithuania and in Israel.

Translated from: Wikipedia