Graph search
1,092 records
Abeles, Shim‘on
(1682/85–1694), Jewish youth in Prague whose father was accused of murdering him “out of hatred for the Christian faith.” The death of Shim‘on Abeles in February 1694 illuminates the tensions that beset Prague’s Jewish c…
yivo
Abramovich, Rafail
(1880–1963), revolutionary and publicist. Born in Dünaburg (Dvinsk; mod. Daugavpils, Latvia), Rafail Abramovich (originally surnamed Rein) studied in a modern (nonclassical) secondary school and later at Riga Polytechnic…
yivo
Abramovitsh, Sholem Yankev
(Mendele Moykher-Sforim; 1835–1917), Hebrew and Yiddish writer. Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh is acknowledged, almost universally, as the founder of modern artistic prose in Hebrew and Yiddish. Born to a middle-class family …
yivo
Acsády, Ignác
(1845–1906), historian, journalist, and fiction writer. Ignác Acsády (Adler until 1875) was born in Nagykároly, Hungary, the oldest son of a wealthy landowner. Acsády’s father served as head of the Jewish community of Ha…
yivo
Aczél, György
(1917–1991), Communist ideologue, cultural tsar of Hungary in the post-1956 Kádár era. György Aczél grew up in an orphanage, worked in construction, and performed as an actor. He participated in the Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa‘ir y…
yivo
Adalberg, Samuel
(1868–1939), paremiologist (collector of proverbs), Polish state official, and advocate for assimilated Jews. Born in Warsaw, Samuel Adalberg received his elementary education at the Szkoła Realna (1878–1888), the first …
yivo
Aderca, Felix
(1891–1962), writer, playwright, literary critic, and journalist. Felix Aderca (originally Froim Zeilic Adercu) was born in the village of Puieşti, Moldavia, to a family of merchants, and did not complete high school. He…
yivo
Adler, Yankl
(1895–1949), artist. Yankl (Jakub) Adler was born in Tuszyn, near Łódź, and died in England. Apprenticed in engraving in Łódź in 1912, he moved to Düsseldorf in 1913 for further studies. There Adler came into contact wit…
yivo
Agnon, Shemu’el Yosef
(1888–1970), Hebrew writer; Nobel laureate in literature. Shemu’el Yosef Agnon (formerly Czaczkes) was born in Buczacz, a small town in eastern Galicia, then under Austro-Hungarian rule. He left his hometown permanently …
yivo
Agurskii, Samuil Khaimovich
(1884–1947), Communist Party figure and historian. Born in Grodno, where he had a traditional elementary education, Samuil (also Shmuel or Sam) Agurskii joined the Bund during the revolution of 1905. From 1906 to May 191…
yivo
Ahad Ha-Am
(1856–1927), Zionist thinker. Born in Skvira, Ukraine, Ahad Ha-Am (born Asher Ginzberg; Heb., more properly Aḥad ha-‘Am, a pen name that translates as “One of the People”) was a Hebrew essayist of singular power and auth…
yivo
Aharon ben Mosheh ha-Levi Horowitz
(1766–1828), Talmudist, kabbalist, and Hasidic master in Staroselye (Starosselje) in the province of Mohilev. In his youth, Aharon ha-Levi became a follower of Shneur Zalman of Liady, founder of Ḥabad (Lubavitch) Hasidis…
yivo
Aizman, David Iakovlevich
(1869–1922), Russian fiction writer and playwright. Born in Nikolaev, in the Russian Empire (now Mikolayiv, Ukraine), David Aizman led an itinerant life most of his adult years. In an autobiographical note he wrote, “To …
yivo
Akselrod, Zelik
(1904–1941), Yiddish poet. Born in Molodechno, Belorussia, Zelik Akselrod was 11 years old when his family found themselves among the Jews expelled by the Russian army from the World War I theater of operation. From Tamb…
yivo
Aksenfeld, Yisroel
(1787–1866), Yiddish playwright, novelist, and exponent of the Haskalah. Born in Nemirov (Nemyriv), western Ukraine, to an important Hasidic family, Yisroel Aksenfeld was brought up as a Bratslaver Hasid (he was personal…
yivo
Alexander, Bernát
(1850–1927), philosopher, aesthetician, literary scholar, and educator. Bernát Alexander completed his high school studies at the Royal Catholic Gymnasium in Pest, Hungary, where he befriended József Bánóczi, with whom h…
yivo
Alter, Wiktor
(1890–1943), leader of the Polish Bund, and of Poland’s Jewish trade union movement. Wiktor Alter was born in Mława to a Hasidic family. His father, a wood merchant, died when Alter was a year old; subsequently, the fami…
yivo
Altman, Moyshe
(1890–1981), Yiddish writer. Born in the shtetl of Lipkan in Bessarabia, Moyshe Altman received a traditional Jewish education and attended the Russian school in Kamenets Podolski. Thanks to his exceptional memory and di…
yivo
Al’tman, Natan Isaevich
(1889–1970), artist. From 1914 to 1924, Natan Al’tman was the chief rival of Marc Chagall in the Russian Jewish art renaissance. Born in Vinnitsa (Vinnytsya, Ukr.), he attended art school in Odessa from 1903 to 1907 and …
yivo
Anielewicz, Mordekhai
(1920?–1943), Zionist youth leader and commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ŻOB) in the Warsaw ghetto. Born in Wyszków, Poland, Mordekhai Anielewicz was initially a member of the Re…
yivo