1914 Odessa RUSSIAN JEWISH BOOK Hebrew MORIA Biblical BIBLE STORIES Illustrated

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1914 Odessa RUSSIAN JEWISH BOOK Hebrew MORIA Biblical BIBLE STORIES Illustrated:
$145.00

DESCRIPTION : Up for sale is a UNIQUE and VERYRARE Jewish book , Being the illustrated \"BIBLE STORIES For CHILDREN\" ( SIPURE HAMIKRA LIYLADIM ) which was published in ODESSA RUSSIA in 1914 by the legendary Hebrew book edition \"MORIA\" - MORIA - Hebrew publishing house, founded in 1901–1902 in Odessa. Moriah was established by the poet Ḥayim Naḥman Bialik, Hebrew-Zionist activist Y.H. Ravnitski, writer Simḥah Alter Gutmann (known as S. Ben-Zion), and others in Ahad Ha-Am’s circle. Under Bialik and Ravnitski, Moriah became the premiere Hebrew publishing house in the period before World War I, a brief revival in 1917–1918 ended amid economic crisis and Bolshevik suppression. Moriah made its reputation with innovative adaptations of classical and modern Hebrew texts for students in modernized Hebrew-Zionist schools, including its oft-reprinted collection of biblical stories Sipure ha-Mikra’ (1903) . Original illustrated HC with ART NOUVEAU decorations . Cloth spine. 8 x 5.5 \" . Oblong. 152 pp. Quite reasonable condition for age . Stamps of the previous owner \" GIRLS SCHOOL IN JERUSALEM\" which operated in the 1930\'s. Binding somewhat loose .( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images)Bookwill be sent inside a protective envelope.

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal .SHIPPMENT : SHIPP worldwide via registeredairmail $17 . Book will be sent inside a protective envelope . Handlingwithin 3-5 days after payment. Estimated duration 14 Hebrew publishing house, founded in 1901–1902 in Odessa. Moriah was established by the poet Ḥayim Naḥman Bialik, Hebrew-Zionist activist Y. H. Ravnitski, writer Simḥah Alter Gutmann (known as S. Ben-Zion), and others in Ahad Ha-Am’s circle. Under Bialik and Ravnitski, Moriah became the premiere Hebrew publishing house in the period before World War I; a brief revival in 1917–1918 ended amid economic crisis and Bolshevik suppression. Moriah made its reputation with innovative adaptations of classical and modern Hebrew texts for students in modernized Hebrew-Zionist schools, including its oft-reprinted collection of biblical stories Sipure ha-Mikra’ (1903); Ben-Zion’s reader for school and home Ben-‘ami (1907); and Shirat Yisra’el (1906), a reader of Sephardic poetry. Bialik and Ravnitski soon reoriented Moriah with a more ambitious effort to create a national Hebrew canon. This included most famously their Sefer ha-agadah (The Book of Legends, 1908–1911) and the collected works of key modern Jewish writers including Bialik, Sha’ul Tchernichowsky, Zalman Shneour, Mendele Moykher-Sforim, and (to some extent) Y. L. Peretz. Moriah also published Hebrew and translated Yiddish literary works suitable for children; authors included Sholem Aleichem, Avrom Reyzen, Mordekhai Ben-Ami, Mendele, and Bialik himself (who also did many of the translations). Moriah made limited space for translations of European classics (e.g., Frishman’s translation of Grimms’ fairy tales). In 1917–1918, it published the anthology Keneset (edited by Bialik), which included Bialik’s famous essay “Halakhah and Agadah,” Ravnitski’s Yiddish anthology Untervegs, and Reshumot (edited by Alter Druyanow and others), a pioneering journal of folklore, ethnography, and memoirs. Moriah’s significance inheres especially in its distillation of Bialik’s distinctive cultural vision. Its initial educational focus grew out of the editors’ involvement in Hebraist educational efforts in Odessa. Its expanding brief reflected Bialik’s idea of kinus, or cultural ingathering, which aimed to constitute a unified, Hebraized, and aesthetically reconstructed canon of the most compelling Jewish texts throughout history as the basis for the emerging modern Hebrew national culture. In particular, Bialik sought to reintegrate selected classical Hebrew texts (reworked according to secular and national categories) and valuable Jewish texts from other languages (such as Yiddish) into modern Hebrew culture. Hence Moriah’s focus on classical (and often neglected) texts and definitive editions of modern Jewish classics. Hence, too, Moriah’s most distinctive endeavor, Bialik’s and Ravnitski’s longtime, all-consuming effort to make agadah a central and compelling force in the evolving secular Hebrew culture. Initiated in 1904 as part of Moriah’s textbook program, this undertaking led not only to a series of textbooks, Divre agadah (a selection of agadot from the Talmud and midrashim for students; 1909–1929) but also to the Sefer ha-agadah. In wresting aggadic elements, particularly from the Babylonian Talmud, out of their exegetical or homiletic contexts, translating them into literary Hebrew, and selecting them according to aesthetic criteria, Bialik and Ravnitski reorganized them under their own chronological and thematic categories and presented them as folkloristic literary texts and fragments of a national epic. Sefer ha-agadah achieved immediate popularity in Hebrew as well as in Bialik and Ravnitski’s own Yiddish adaptation and has been reprinted many times by Moriah’s successor in Israel, Devir. Suggested Reading Mark Kiel, “A Twice Lost Legacy: Ideology, Culture, and the Pursuit of Jewish Folklore in Russia until Stalinization, 1930–1931” (Ph.D. diss., The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1991); Uriel Ofek, “Moriyah ve-sofre Odesah,” in Sifrut ha-yeladim ha-‘ivrit, 1900–1948, vol. 1, pp. 77–122 (Tel Aviv, 1988); Yoḥanan Pograbinski, “Le-Toldot ha-molut ha-‘ivrit,” Ha-Sefer ha-‘ivri: Kovets shenati 9 (New York, 1950/51): 37–56; Adam Rubin, “From Torah to Tarbut: Hayim Nahman Bialik and the Nationalization of Judaism” (Ph.D. diss., University of California—Los Angeles, 2000). ***** Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky (1859–1944), Hebrew journalist and publisher. Born in Odessa, Rawnitzki began his journalistic career—in which he continued for most of his life—in 1879, by contributing first to Ha-Kol, and then to other periodicals. His articles, first in Hebrew and later in Yiddish, were largely the result of his activities in the Hibbat Zion movement. He was the editor and publisher of the literary collection Pardes (3 vols., 1892–96), a forum for the outstanding Hebrew writers of the time and a forerunner of Ha-Shilo\'ah. With his publication of H.N. Bialik\'s first poem, \"El ha-Zippor,\" in Pardes, Rawnitzki became Bialik\'s first patron, thus initiating a lifelong association with the poet. Some of his own works appeared in Pardes and subsequently in Ha-Shilo\'ah, as well as other periodicals. Special recognition was aroused by a series of feuilletons, \"Kevurat Soferim\" (\"The Burial of Writers\"), which were written with Shalom Aleichem under the pseudonyms of Eldad (Shalom Aleichem) and Medad (Rawnitzki). As a result of his teaching experience and interest in pedagogical problems, he established the Moriah publishing house in Odessa in 1901, together with S. Ben-Zion and Bialik, having influenced the latter to move to Odessa. The publishing house, the first of his joint endeavors with Bialik, began with the publication of textbooks (e.g., Sippurei ha-Mikra, 1903–05), followed by the influential aggadic anthology Sefer ha-Aggadah (1908–11), and many other books. This partnership between the two continued until the poet\'s death. Bialik frequently complained that Rawnitzki\'s role was not sufficiently appreciated. Settling in Erez Israel in 1921, Rawnitzki, together with Bialik and S. Levin, founded the Devir publishing house, where he published the works on which he and Bialik had cooperated (e.g., the commentary on the poems of Moses ibn Ezra and Solomon ibn Gabirol). Later, he published Dor ve-Soferav (2 vols., 1926–37), a collection of his articles and memoirs on Bialik, Mendele Mokher Seforim, and other writers of his time, and Mikhtavim le-Vat Yisrael (2nd ed., 1923), on educational problems. A collection of his articles, Be-Sha\'arei Sefer (1961), was published by S. Kremer, together with a comprehensive introduction by the editor. Rawnitzki also published Yiddish books and edited various Yiddish periodicals. Hayim Nahman Bialik (Hebrew: חיים נחמן ביאליק‎; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934), also Chaim or Haim, was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew but also in Yiddish. Bialik was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry. He was part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to the breath of new life in Jewish life. Bialik ultimately came to be recognized as Israel\'s national poet. Contents 1 Biography2 Literary career3 Move to Germany4 Move to Tel Aviv5 Works and influence6 Death7 References8 Selected bibliography in English9 External links Biography Bialik was born in the village of Radi, Volhynia in the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire to Yitzhak Yosef Bialik, a scholar and businessman, and his wife Dinah (Priveh). Bialik\'s father died in 1880, when Bialik was 7 years old. In his poems, Bialik romanticized the misery of his childhood, describing seven orphans left behind—though modern biographers believe there were fewer children, including grown step-siblings who did not need to be supported. Be that as it may, from the age 7 onwards Bialik was raised in Zhitomir (also Ukraine) by his Orthodox grandfather, Yaakov Moshe Bialik. In Zhitomir he received a traditional Jewish religious education, but also explored European literature. At the age of 15, inspired by an article he read, he convinced his grandfather to send him to the Volozhin Yeshiva in Lithuania, to study at a famous Talmudic academy under Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, where he hoped he could continue his Jewish schooling while expanding his education to European literature as well. Attracted to the Jewish Enlightenment movement (Haskala), Bialik gradually drifted away from yeshiva life. Poems such as HaMatmid (\"The Talmud student\") written in 1898, reflect his great ambivalence toward that way of life: on the one hand admiration for the dedication and devotion of the yeshiva students to their studies, on the other hand a disdain for the narrowness of their world. At 18 he left for Odessa, the center of modern Jewish culture in Ukraine and the southern Russian Empire, drawn by such luminaries as Mendele Mocher Sforim and Ahad Ha\'am. In Odessa, Bialik studied Russian and German language and literature, and dreamed of enrolling in the Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. Alone and penniless, he made his living teaching Hebrew. The 1892 publication of his first poem, El Hatzipor \"To the Bird,\" which expresses a longing for Zion, in a booklet edited by Yehoshua Hone Ravnitzky (a future collaborator), eased Bialik\'s way into Jewish literary circles in Odessa. He joined the so-called Hovevei Zion group and befriended Ahad Ha\'am, who had a great influence on his Zionist outlook. In 1892 Bialik heard news that the Volozhin yeshiva had closed, and rushed home to Zhitomir, to prevent his grandfather from discovering that he had discontinued his religious education. He arrived to discover his grandfather and his older brother both on their deathbeds. Following their deaths, Bialik married Mania Averbuch in 1893. For a time he served as a bookkeeper in his father-in-law\'s lumber business in Korostyshiv, near Kiev. But when this proved unsuccessful, he moved in 1897 to Sosnowiec, a small town in Zaglembia, southern Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, near the border with Prussia and Austria. In Sosnowiec, Bialik worked as a Hebrew teacher, and tried to earn extra income as a coal merchant, but the provincial life depressed him. He was finally able to return to Odessa in 1900, having secured a teaching job. Literary career Bialik For the next two decades, Bialik taught and continued his activities in Zionist and literary circles, as his literary fame continued to rise. This is considered Bialik\'s \"golden period\". In 1901 his first collection of poetry was published in Warsaw, and was greeted with much critical acclaim, to the point that he was hailed \"the poet of national renaissance.\" Bialik relocated to Warsaw briefly in 1904 as literary editor of the weekly magazine HaShiloah founded by Ahad Ha\'am, a position he served for six years. In 1903 Bialik was sent by the Jewish Historical Commission in Odessa to interview survivors of the Kishinev pogroms and prepare a report. In response to his findings Bialik wrote his epic poem In the City of Slaughter, a powerful statement of anguish at the situation of the Jews. Bialik\'s condemnation of passivity against anti-Semitic violence is said to have influenced the founding Jewish self-defense groups in the Russian Empire, and eventually the Haganah in Palestine. Bialik visited Palestine in 1909. In the early 20th century, Bialik founded with Ravnitzky, Simcha Ben Zion and Elhanan Levinsky, a Hebrew publishing house, Moriah, which issued Hebrew classics and school texts. He translated into Hebrew various European works, such as Shakespeare\'s Julius Caesar, Schiller\'s Wilhelm Tell, Cervantes\' Don Quixote, and Heine\'s poems; and from Yiddish S. Ansky\'s The Dybbuk. Throughout the years 1899-1915, Bialik published about 20 of his Yiddish poems in different Yiddish periodicals in the Russian Empire. These poems are often considered to be among the best achievements of modern Yiddish poetry of that period. In collaboration with Ravnitzky, Bialik published Sefer HaAggadah (1908–1911, The Book of Legends), a three-volume edition of the folk tales and proverbs scattered through the Talmud. For the book they selected hundreds of texts and arranged them thematically. The Book of Legends was immediately recognized as a masterwork and has been reprinted numerous times. Bialik also edited the poems of the medieval poet and philosopher Ibn Gabirol. He began a modern commentary on the Mishnah, but only completed Zeraim, the first of the six Orders (in the 1950s, the Bialik Institute published a commentary on the entire Mishnah by Hanoch Albeck, which is currently out of print). He additionally added several commentaries on the Talmud. In Odessa, namely in 1919, he was also able to found the Dvir publishing house, which would later become famous.[1][2] This publishing house, now based in Israel, is still in existence, but is now known as Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir after Dvir was purchased by the Zmora-Bitan publishing house in 1986, which later fused with Kinneret as well. Bialik lived in Odessa until 1921, when the Moriah publishing house was closed by Communist authorities, as a result of mounting paranoia following the Bolshevik Revolution. With the intervention of Maxim Gorki, a group of Hebrew writers were given permission by the Soviet government to leave the country. While in Odessa he had befriended the soprano Isa Kremer whom he had a profound influence on. It was through his influence that she became an exponent of Yiddish music on the concert stage; notably becoming the first woman to concertize that music. Move to Germany Bialik then moved - via Poland and Turkey - to Berlin, where together with his friends Ravnitzky and Shmaryahu Levin he re-established the Dvir publishing house. Bialik published in Dvir the first Hebrew language scientific journal with teachers of the rabbinical college Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums contributing. In Berlin Bialik joined a community of Jewish authors and publishers such as Samuel Joseph Agnon (sponsored by the owner of Schocken Department Stores, Salman Schocken, who later founded Schocken Verlag), Simon Dubnow, Israel Isidor Elyashev (Ba\'al-Machshoves), Uri Zvi Greenberg, Jakob Klatzkin (founded Eschkol publishing house in Berlin), Moshe Kulbak, Jakob-Wolf Latzki-Bertoldi (founded Klal publishing house in Berlin in 1921), Simon Rawidowicz (co-founder of Klal), Salman Schneur, Nochum Shtif (Ba\'al-Dimion), Shaul Tchernichovsky, elsewhere in Germany Shoshana Persitz with Omanuth publishing house in Bad Homburg v.d.H. and Martin Buber. They met in the Hebrew Club Beith haWa\'ad ha\'Ivri בית הועד העברי (in Berlin\'s Scheunenviertel) or in Café Monopol, which had a Hebrew speaking corner, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda\'s son Itamar Ben-Avi recalled, and in Café des Westens (both in Berlin\'s more elegant western boroughs). The then still Soviet theatre HaBimah toured through Germany, renowned by Albert Einstein, Alfred Kerr and Max Reinhardt. Bialik succeeded Saul Israel Hurwitz after his death (8 August 1922) as Hebrew chief editor at Klal publishing house, which published 80 titles in 1922.[3] On January 1923 Bialik\'s 50th birthday was celebrated in the old concert hall of the Berlin Philharmonic bringing together everybody who was anybody.[4] In the years of Inflation Berlin had become a centre of Yiddish and Hebrew and other foreign language publishing and printing, because books could be produced at ever falling real expenses and sold to a great extent for stable foreign currency. Many Hebrew and Yiddish titles were also translated into German. Once the old inflationary currency (Mark) was replaced by the new stable Rentenmark and Reichsmark this period ended and many publishing houses closed or relocated elsewhere, as did many prominent publishers and authors. Move to Tel Aviv Beit Bialik, Tel Aviv In 1924, Bialik relocated with his publishing house Dvir to Tel Aviv, devoting himself to cultural activities and public affairs. Bialik was immediately recognized as a celebrated literary figure. He delivered the address that marked the opening (in 1925) of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was a member of its board of governors. In 1927 he became head of the Hebrew Writers Union, a position he retained for the remainder of his life. In 1933 his 60th birthday was celebrated with festivities nationwide, and all the schoolchildren of Tel Aviv were taken to meet him and pay their respects to him. Works and influence Bialik wrote several different modes of poetry. He is perhaps most famous for his long, nationalistic poems, which call for a reawakening of the Jewish people. However no less effective are his passionate love poems, his personal verse or his nature poems. Last but not least, Bialik\'s songs for children are a staple of Israeli nursery life. From 1908 onwards, he wrote mostly prose. By writing his works in Hebrew, Bialik contributed significantly to the revival of the Hebrew language, which before his days existed primarily as an ancient, scholarly tongue. His influence is felt deeply in all modern Hebrew literature. The generation of Hebrew language poets who followed in Bialik\'s footsteps, including Jacob Steinberg and Jacob Fichman, are called \"the Bialik generation\". To this day, Bialik is recognized as Israel\'s national poet. Bialik House, his former home at 22 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv, has been converted into a museum, and functions as a center for literary events. The municipality of Tel Aviv awards the Bialik Prize in his honor. Kiryat Bialik, a suburb of Haifa, and Givat Hen, a moshav bordering the city of Raanana, are named after him. He is the only person to have two streets named after him in the same Israeli city - Bialik Street and Hen Boulevard in Tel Aviv. There is also Bialik Hebrew Day School www.bialik.ca in Toronto, ON, Canada; Bialik High School in Montreal, QC, Canada; and a cross-communal Jewish Zionist school in Melbourne called Bialik College. In Caracas, Venezuela, the largest Jewish community school is named Herzl-Bialik. Also in Rosario, Argentina the only Jewish school is named after him. Bialik\'s poems have been translated into at least 30 languages, and set to music as popular songs. These poems, and the songs based on them, have become an essential part of the education and culture of modern Israel. Bialik wrote most of his poems using \"Ashkenazi\" pronunciation, while modern Israeli Hebrew uses the Sephardi pronunciation. Consequently, Bialik\'s poems are rarely recited in the meter in which they were written. Death Bialik died in Vienna, Austria, on July 4, 1934, following a failed prostate operation.[5] He was buried in Tel Aviv: a large mourning procession followed from his home on the street named after him, to his final resting place. References Kinneret website Literary Scouting, Israel Maren Krüger, \'Buchproduktion im Exil. Der Klal-Verlag\', In: Juden in Kreuzberg: Fundstücke, Fragmente, Erinnerungen …, Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt e.V. (ed.), Berlin: Edition Hentrich, pp. 421-426, here p. 422. ISBN 3-89468-002-4 Michael Brenner, \'Blütezeit des Hebräischen: Eine vergessene Episode im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre\', In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 September 2000, supplement \'Ereignisse und Gestalten\', p. III. \"Bialik dies suddenly\" (PDF). Jewish Daily Bulleting (No. 2889). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 5 July 1934. Retrieved 18 November 2014. Selected bibliography in English Selected Writings (poetry and prose) Hasefer, 1924; New York, New Palestine, 1926; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1939; New York, Histadrut Ivrit of America, 1948; New York, Bloch, 1965; New York, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1972; Tel Aviv, Dvir and the Jerusalem Post, 1981; Columbus, Alpha, 1987The Short Friday Tel Aviv, Hashaot, 1944Knight of Onions and Knight of Garlic New York, Jordan, 1939Random Harvest - The Novellas of C. N. Bialik, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press (Perseus Books), 1999The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nahman Bialik, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2000Selected Poems: Bilingual Edition, (translated by Ruth Nevo), Jerusalem: Dvir, 1981. External links Biography at the Jewish Virtual LibraryWorks by or about Hayim Nahman Bialik at Internet ArchiveWorks by Hayim Nahman Bialik at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Petri Liukkonen. \"Hayim Nahman Bialik\". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.(Ben-Tsiyon Gutmann; 1870–1932), Hebrew writer and educator. Known by his nom de plume S. Ben-Tsiyon (S. Ben-Zion in English sources), Simḥah Gutmann was born in Teleneshty, Bessarabia. Though he received a traditional heder education, Ben-Tsiyon was also exposed to Hebrew maskilic literature. His first story, “Mayn khaver” (My Friend), appeared in Yiddish (1899); he later translated it into Hebrew and published it under the title “Meshi” (Silk; 1902). His subsequent Hebrew stories appeared in prominent journals. In 1897 Ben-Tsiyon left his detested profession—cattle trading—and switched to teaching, an occupation he regarded as his true calling and in which he was very successful. In 1899 the prestigious Ha-Ḥinukh society invited him to Odessa to teach in the city’s modernized heder, a school that quickly became a model institution. In 1900 Ḥayim Naḥman Bialik was invited to teach under Ben-Tsiyon’s supervision, and a friendship between the two men blossomed. An innovative teacher who pioneered the ‘Ivrit be-‘ivrit method (teaching Hebrew and related subjects by using solely the Hebrew language), Ben-Tsiyon systematically compiled the graded Ben-‘ami textbook series; the first of its many editions was issued in 1904. Ben-Tsiyon was part of the Sofre Odessa, a circle of writers who had a major influence upon the development of Hebrew culture and literature. He was an ardent follower of Mendele Moykher-Sforim, even though they differed in their views about Zionism. With the goal of revitalizing Hebrew education, Ben-Tsiyon joined with Bialik, Elḥanan Leib Lewinsky, and Yehoshu‘a Ḥana Ravnitski to establish the Moriah Press. Throughout this period, Ben-Tsiyon remained one of the most highly regarded writers of his generation, exhibiting his finest skill in the stories “‘Al ketseh gevul ha-yaldut” (On the Edge of Childhood; 1899), “Nefesh retsutsah” (Fragmented Soul; 1902), “Zekenim” (Elders; 1903), and “Me-‘Ever le-ḥayim” (Beyond Life; 1904). In 1905, with his wife and five children (one of whom became the painter and writer Naḥum Gutman), Ben-Tsiyon left Odessa for Palestine, and was one of the founders of Tel Aviv in 1909, where he remained until his death in 1932. As a disciple follower of Ahad Ha-Am, Ben-Tsiyon planned to create a literary center in pre-state Israel, modeled on the Odessa circle. The scholarly journal Ha-‘Omer and his continuing textbook series were part of this agenda. In 1910 he helped devise the youth periodical Moledet, which was published under the auspices of the Palestine Teachers Union. The journal was initially issued in 1911; however, by the end of its first year Ben-Tsiyon was crudely removed from its editorial body by the teachers’ central board. His failures as an editor embittered him, and he subsequently dissociated himself from cultural, public, and literary activities. His hope that in Palestine he would sustain the leadership position he had held in Odessa was dashed. Ruptures widened between Ben-Tsiyon and the workers’ parties that had set the tone for literary standards in Palestine, as well as personally between him and their leaders (including Berl Katsenelson). These rejections led him to associate with “civilian circles” whose contribution to cultural activity in those years was marginal. Still, he continued to compile his textbook series Ben-‘ami. In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, he published Kol ketavav (All His Writings) in two volumes, and when the British occupied Palestine, he edited the literary supplement Shai shel sifrut (The Gift of Literature), which was attached to the daily Ḥadashot meha-arets (1918–1919), and Ha-Ezraḥ, an anthology “dedicated to literature, science, and contemporary questions” (1919–1920). He also served on the editorial board of Busten’ai, an organ of the Farmers Union. Despite his continued involvement in literary and public activities, Ben-Tsiyon is recorded in historical accounts as someone whose renown was forgotten during his lifetime. Nonetheless, his collected writings appeared in 1949. S. Ben-Tsiyon’s life and works thus fall into two periods: his early years in the Diaspora and his later life in Palestine. Playing center stage to literary audiences and educators in his early adulthood, he was a chief storyteller of the shtetl, describing typical experiences, settings, and varieties of characters. His style balances mockery and criticism with softness and compassion, while his plot lines tell the fate of individuals worn down by the difficulties of survival. His famous novella Nefesh retsutsah is an indictment of traditional heder education. Another work on shtetl life, “Le-Ḥayim shel parnasah” (For a Prosperous Life; 1913), shows how the tensions associated with making a living lead to humiliation and moral degradation. Ben-Tsiyon’s prose exemplifies realism and demonstrates the flexible strata of the Hebrew language. Unfortunately, his rich linguistic infusion seemed affected to some of his audience, creating a barrier for the generation of readers that followed his own. Though S. Ben-Tsiyon paved the way for those who came after him, he himself paid a heavy price for helping to turn pre-state Israel into the center for Hebrew culture and literature. Suggested Reading Jacob Fichman (Ya‘akov Fichmann), “S. Ben-Tsiyon,” in Amat ha-binyan: Sofre Odesah, pp. 415–490 (Jerusalem, 1951); Nurit Govrin, “Meḥir ha-ri’shonut: S. Ben-Tsiyon,” in Devash mi-sela‘: Meḥkarim be-sifrut Erets Yisra’el, pp. 264–287 (Tel Aviv, 1989); Joseph Klausner, “S. Ben-Tsiyon,” in Yotsrim u-vonim: Ma’amre bikoret, vol. 2, pp. 183–199 (Jerusalem, 1929); Gershon Shaked, “S. Ben-Tsiyon (Simḥah Alter Gutman),” in Ha-Siporet ha-‘ivrit 1880–1970, vol. 1, pp. 295–302 (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 1977). (1859–1944), Hebrew and Yiddish writer, editor, publisher, and educator. Yehoshu‘a Ḥana Ravnitski (Yoshue Khone Rawnitzki) was born in Odessa and received a traditional Jewish education in heder and yeshiva. After marrying, he lived from 1877 to 1887 in the nearby town of Mayak. There he taught himself Russian, French, and German.In 1888, Ravnitski returned to Odessa, where he remained until moving to Palestine in 1921. As a central figure in the prominent circle of Jewish writers, thinkers, and activists known as the Wise Men of Odessa, he associated with Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh, Ahad Ha-Am, Ḥayim Naḥman Bialik, Sholem Aleichem, and Simon Dubnow. Ravnitski published extensively in the Hebrew and Yiddish press, and although he initially wrote stories and poems, his Hebrew writing soon dealt with the Haskalah, Jewish nationalism, and Zionism. During the 1880s and early 1890s, he was active in the proto-Zionist movement Ḥibat Tsiyon, and later was a major figure in the Cultural Zionism movement, even before it was associated with Ahad Ha-Am. Ravnitski was an enthusiastic supporter of Ahad Ha-Am, and took on the task of explaining, expanding, and popularizing the latter’s work.From Yehoshu‘a Ravnitski in Odessa to Dovid Pinski in Berlin, 14 April 1909, asking him to contribute a piece to an anthology commemorating Zelig Yehudah Steinberg, which Pinski is to write in Yiddish but which will be translated into Hebrew. Yiddish. Russian, German, and Hebrew letterhead: Verlag Moriah, Odessa, Post office box 916. RG 107, Letters Collection. (YIVO) Fleeing Russia after the revolution, in 1921, Ravnitski (with Bialik and other Hebrew writers) moved to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. While his achievements there were often overshadowed by those of the more famous figures with whom he collaborated, a consideration of his work reveals his highly significant role in creating modern Jewish culture. In the Yiddish press, Ravnitski’s main emphasis was on literary criticism. In fact, he was one of the first to evaluate Yiddish literature (some consider him the first literary critic of works in that language). His most significant early publication in that field was the series of critical essays titled An esek mit shmates (A Business with Rags), written under a pseudonym and published in Baylage tsum Yudishes folksblat (1888). In these, he sharply attacked the novels of Shomer, Shim‘on Bekerman, and Avrom-Yitskhok Bukhbinder for their sentimentalism, and called for a more realistic style and approach in Yiddish literature. In 1892–1893, Ravnitski collaborated with Sholem Aleichem on a satirical column, published in Ha-Melits and titled “Kevurat sofrim” (The Burial of Writers). Adopting the pseudonyms Eldad (Sholem Aleichem) and Medad (Ravnitski), the two critics pretended to be “simple readers in a small town” doing what the “spoiled professional critics” avoid—sharply criticizing Hebrew and Yiddish writers. Medad was just one of many pseudonyms that Ravnitski used (among his favorite pen names were Bar Katsin, Bat Kol, Baki, and Tsofnat Pa‘neaḥ). His pieces appeared in Der yud, Der fraynd, Hilf, and Pinkes. Ravnitski also established and edited the Hebrew literary journal Pardes (1892–1896), which contained some of the most important writing of Hebrew literature of the time. In it, he published Bialik’s first poem, “El ha-tsipor” (1892). Bialik continued to publish in Pardes, marking the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between the two men, which lasted until Bialik’s death in 1934. In 1893, Ravnitski established ‘Olam Katan (Small World), a publishing house whose aim was to produce and disseminate Hebrew literature (both original and in translation) for young readers. In Yiddish, he edited the first volumes of Der yud (from 1899 on), a journal that played an important role in the history of Yiddish literature and the Yiddish press. He was also an editor of the collection Kultur (Minsk, 1905). In 1901, after many years of work in Jewish education, Ravnitski, with Bialik, S. Ben-Tsion (Simḥah Alter Gutmann) and Elḥanan Leib Lewinsky, established the Moriah publishing house. Its aim was to publish Hebrew classics and educational literature in Hebrew, and its projects became the foundation of what Bialik called kinus—gathering classic Jewish texts so as to create a foundation for a modern national Jewish culture. The crown in this activity was Ravnitski and Bialik’s collaboration on Sefer ha-agadah (The Book of Legends; 1908–1911), a three-volume edition of narratives, folktales, and proverbs found in Talmudic and midrashic sources. Immediately regarded as a masterwork, Sefer ha-agadah had an enormous influence. In 1919, Ravnitski published Mikhtavim le-bat Yisra’el (Letters to the Daughter of Israel), in which he laid out his ideas on education in general and on Jewish education in particular. Ravnitski and his collaborators also established the publishing project Turgeman (The Translator), with the goal of translating classic European and world literature into Hebrew. Their translations included Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In Palestine, Ravnitski, Bialik, and Shemaryahu Levin established the publishing house Devir, a continuation of Moriah. There he issued a two-volume collection of his own critical and literary essays, Dor ve-sofrav (The Generation and Its Writers; 1927–1938). This work provided a comprehensive overview of Jewish literature and culture in the period 1880–1920, and produced an especially vivid portrait of the literary and cultural center of Odessa. Suggested Reading Simon Ginzburg, Be-Masekhet ha-sifrut (New York, 1944/45), pp. 177–181; Natan Goren, Mevakrim be-sifrutenu (Tel Aviv, 1943/44), pp. 140–142; Shalom Kremer, “Mavo’,” in Be-Sha‘are sefer: Kitve Y. Kh. Ravnitski, pp. 7–47 (Tel Aviv, 1960/61); Yeruḥam Fishel Lachower, Shirah u-maḥashavah (Tel Aviv, 1952/53), pp. 190–199; Nokhem B. Minkoff, Zeks yidishe kritiker (Buenos Aires, 1954), pp. 125–168; Chone Shmeruk, ed., Ḥalifat igrot ben S. Y. Abramovits u-ven Ḥ. N. Byalik ve-Y. [Ḥ.] Ravnitski (Jerusalem, 1976).