אלכסנדרו גראור

Alexandru Graur (1900–1988), linguist, born Alter Brauer in Botoşani, Romania. Graur studied at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest and then at École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France, from 1924 to 1929, earning a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne with a study of Indo-european linguistics. He returned to Romania where he started his scientific research in the 1930s.

Graur was the founder and the principal of the "Liceul particular evreiesc" (Jewish Private High School) established in 1941, when Jewish students were forbidden to attend Romanian schools. In 1946 Grauer joined the staff of the University of Bucharest. His academic successes were recognized in 1955, when he was elected permanent member of the Romanian Academy. Grauer was the Dean of the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest from 1954 to 1956, President of the Society of Classical Studies, from 1958 to 1988, and Director of the Editura Academiei ("The Academy Publishing House"), from 1958 to his death.

He published many papers and articles on classical philology and etymology that contributed to the field of linguistics, phonetics and grammar of the Romanic and Romanian languages. He also contributed regularly to Revista Cultului Mosaic, the periodical of the Jewish Communities of Romania .