# Abraham Aaron Roback

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{{Short description|Psychologist (1890–1965)}}
'''Abraham Aaron Roback''' (June 19, 1890 – June 7, 1965) was a Jewish American psychologist and promoter of [Yiddish](/source/Yiddish).<ref name="Shook2005">{{cite book|author=John R. Shook|title=Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsKvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2057|year=2005|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-84714-470-6|pages=2057–8}}</ref>

==Biography==
Roback was born in [Goniondz](/source/Goni%C4%85dz), [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire) (now Poland). He was the youngest of four children to Isaac Roback and Leba Rahver. The family emigrated to [Montreal](/source/Montreal) in 1892, where he attended public schools. He graduated from [McGill University](/source/McGill_University) in 1912, having studied philosophy with [J.W.A. Hickson](/source/J.W.A._Hickson) and experimental psychology with [William Dunlop Tait](/source/William_Dunlop_Tait). He studied for a [Ph.D.](/source/Ph.D.) under [Hugo Münsterberg](/source/Hugo_M%C3%BCnsterberg) at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University),<ref name="Shook2005"/> where he later taught for several years. He also taught at the [University of Pittsburgh](/source/University_of_Pittsburgh), [Northeastern University](/source/Northeastern_University), [Clark University](/source/Clark_University) and [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology).<ref name=JTA>[https://www.jta.org/1965/06/08/archive/dr-a-a-roback-noted-psychologist-and-strong-supporter-of-yiddish-dead Dr. A. A. Roback, Noted Psychologist and Strong Supporter of Yiddish. Dead], ''[JTA](/source/Jewish_Telegraphic_Agency)'', 8 June 1965.</ref>

Roback built a 10,000 volume Yiddish library for Harvard, and introduced the first US academic course in [Yiddish literature](/source/Yiddish_literature) in 1929 for the [Massachusetts University](/source/Massachusetts_University) Extension. He died in [Cambridge, Massachusetts](/source/Cambridge%2C_Massachusetts) on June 7, 1965.<ref name=JTA/>

==Works==
* ''Jewish Influence in Modern Thought'' (1929)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|ethnophaulism}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Abraham Aaron Roback |birth=1890 |death=1965}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150404022003/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01944 Abraham Aaron Roback papers] (MS Am 2518) at Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
*[http://www.yivoarchives.org/?p=collections/controlcard&id=32962 Abraham Aaron Roback papers] (RG 596) at the [YIVO](/source/YIVO) Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY
*[https://www.cjhn.ca/en/permalink/cjhn230 Abraham Aaron Roback collection] at the Canadian Jewish Archives

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roback, Abraham}}
Category:20th-century American psychologists
Category:Yiddish culture in the United States
Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:YIVO people
Category:1890 births
Category:1965 deaths
Category:McGill University alumni

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