Isidor Levin

Who is Isidor Levin?

Isidor Levin is a folklorist, narrative researcher, theologian, and Professor Emeritus at the St. Petersburg Institute of Religion and Philosophy. Levin is an internationally recognized folklorist, who supported the study of Estonian culture and helped Estonian researchers continue their work during the Soviet occupation.

Levin donated his personal library to the University of Tartu just over a decade ago and in 2001 was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th Class, by then-president Lennart Meri.

Levin moved from Latvia to Estonia in 1937 to study at the University of Tartu in the area of Judaic and Semitic studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Jewish Studies. Later he studied Comparative Folklore with Walter Anderson and Oskar Loorits, graduating in 1941. During the Nazi occupation, Levin, who is Jewish, was hidden by his teacher Uku Masing. From 1952 to 1955 he studied Russian language and literature at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute. The following year he became a lecturer in German folklore at the Leningrad Institute of Germanic Studies. In 1967 he obtained a PhD at the Institute of Oriental Studies of Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Isidor Levin is one of the founding members of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research and is an honorary member of the Folklore Fellows.