Stefan Zweig
Gelber is known for his numerous publications on the Austrian-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig, which have inaugurated a new way of reading Zweig, particularly within various Jewish and Zionist contexts. He has been called "one of the world's most eminent authorities on the works of the early 20th century Jewish-Austrian author Stefan Zweig" and the "Israeli Zweig expert". He organized the first Stefan Zweig conference held in Israel in 1981, and he was invited by the city of Salzburg to organize the first major international Stefan Zweig Congress (1992). He organized two more international Zweig conferences (Jerusalem-Beer Sheva, Berlin); he co-edited and published the papers from both of these conferences. In 2011, he gave the first biannual Stefan Zweig lecture at the State University of New York at Fredonia, the location of a major Stefan Zweig archive. Gelber has lectured on Zweig in Israel, Europe, the U.S. and Canada, in Brazil, China, New Zealand and elsewhere. In 2012, he delivered opening plenary lectures at two major international Zweig conferences: the University of London and Renmin University in Beijing. ' Gelber's monograph, 'Stefan Zweig, Judentum und Zionismus',' was published by Studien Verlag (Innsbruck: 2014). Gelber co-edited a volume of essays (with Birger Vanwesenbeeck), "Stefan Zweig and World Literature: 21st Century Perspectives" (Camden House: 2014). and (with Zhang Yi, Renmin University) the essay collection: "Aktualität und Beliebtheit – Neue Forschung und Rezeption von Stefan Zweig im internationalen Blickwinkel" (2015) The notion of an international renaissance in Zweig Studies is now being bruited and Gelber has made a significant contribution to it. Gelber was the initiator and co-organizer of an international conference, "Stefan Zweig - ein jüdischer Schrifsteller aus Europa" which took place at the Stefan Zweig Centre in Salzburg in 2015. The papers delivered at this conference (co-edited by Gelber) were published in 2017 in the Stefan Zweig Centre's book series and entitled: "Stefan Zweig - Jüdische Relationen. Studien zu Werk und Biographie". His own essay in this volume argues for the understanding of a "Fourth Life" in the career of Stefan Zweig and includes an analysis from this perspective of Zweig's book on Brazil ("Brasilien. Ein Land der Zukunft") in relation to his famous autobiography, "Die Welt von Gestern." In November 2016 Gelber lectured in Hebrew at a major event in memory of Zweig, organized by the National Library of Israel entitled: Stefan Zweig, the Future, and the Literary World between the World Wars. Also, Gelber contributed the entry on "Judentum und jüdische Identität" to the authoritative "Stefan Zweig Handbook"(De Gruyter, 2018).