Israel Zinberg (1873-1939) was a Russian-Jewish chemist and a historian of Jewish literature born in Rivne. His works are considered significant in European Jewish Yiddish scholarship. Alumnus of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Zinberg was not a professional historian by background or training, but worked as a chemical engineer in Petrograd and pursued literary history as an "avocation." He was a member of the St. Petersburg school of Jewish scholars along with Simon Dubnow. He drew on the works of Moritz Steinschneider and Ber Borokhov as well as Solomon Birnbaum, Maks Erik, and Max Weinreich. Zinberg's work is foundational to the field of Old Yiddish literary studies.
