[2] When his father became blind, Max, then only fourteen years of age, took charge of his classes,[3] devoting his nights to further study and to writing his Dichtungen, his Maslul, and his Perlenblumen, the latter being metrical translations of the Proverbs.

[7] He was appointed principal of the Hebrew-German school at Eisenstadt in 1835, where he wrote his epic Tif'ereth ha-Tishbi, a biography of the prophet Elijah in two parts.

[8] In 1838, after having taught for half a year at Triesch, he returned to Vienna, where he prepared his epic for the press, publishing it under the pseudonym of "M. I. Ernst" (Leipzig, 1840).

[5] Stern began in 1845 to publish his Hebrew periodical Kokhve Yitzḥak [Wikidata] ('Stars of Isaac'; 36 volumes, 1845–69), which included poetry, prose, scholarly articles, and translations,[9] and was twice subsidized by the Imperial Academy of Science at Vienna.

[4] Later he received from the Emperor of Austria the Imperial and Royal Austrian Gold Medal for Science and Art [de] and the Order of Franz Joseph,[6] and was made an honorary member of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.