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1,092 records
Wunderbar, Re’uven Yosef
(1812–1868), historian, teacher, translator, and government-appointed rabbi. Born in Mitau, Courland guberniia (now Jelgava, Lat.), and educated in a traditional heder, Re’uven Yosef Wunderbar adopted a Haskalah (Enlight…
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Wygodzki, Jakub
(1855–1941), physician, public leader, and Zionist activist. Jakub Wygodzki was born in Bobruisk (Bobruysk). In 1860, his family moved to Vilna, where he received a traditional Jewish education. He completed his high sch…
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Wygodzki, Stanisław
(1907–1992), writer, poet, and translator. Abandoning his youthful involvement in the Zionism embraced by his father, Yitsḥak, Stanisław (Szaja) Wygodzki became active in the Communist movement and suffered political rep…
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Yafeh, Mordekhai ben Avraham
(1525 or 1530–1612), rabbi, Talmudist, and kabbalist. Born in Prague, Mordekhai ben Avraham Yafeh (or Jaffe; called Ba‘al ha-Levushim [Author of the Levushim], after the name of his works) moved as a boy to Poland, where…
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Yaknehoz
(Pseudonym of Yeshaye Nisn Hakoyen Goldberg; 1858–1927), Yiddish author. Born to a poor family in the village of Stolbovshchine (on the Neman River in Minsk province), Yaknehoz came from a distinguished lineage: his fath…
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Yatskan, Shmuel Yankev
(1874–1936), publisher, editor, and publicist. Born in Vobol’niki (Vabalninkas), Lithuania, Shmuel Yankev Yatskan received a traditional Jewish education at the Ponevezh yeshiva, and rabbinical ordination in 1892. He mov…
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Ya‘akov Yitsḥak Horowitz
(The Seer of Lublin; 1745–1815), the most influential Hasidic leader in Poland and Galicia at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Though he did not found a dynasty, the majority of tsadikim living at his time in tha…
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Ya‘akov Yosef of Polnoye
(d. 1783), rabbi and author of the first published Hasidic book. Ya‘akov Yosef of Polnoye (Pol., Połonne) served as rabbi of Shargorod, the second largest community in the Podolia region. In 1741, after coming under the …
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Yehoshu‘a ben Aleksander ha-Kohen
(1555–1614), rabbinical scholar and halakhic authority. Yehoshu‘a ben Aleksander ha-Kohen, also known as Sema‘ (an acronym of the title of his Sefer me’irat ‘enayim, which is a commentary to the Ḥoshen mishpat portion of…
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Yehoshu‘a Heshel of Kraków
(1578–1648), halakhist and rabbi. Born in Vilna, Yehoshu‘a Heshel of Kraków served as rabbi in Grodno, Tiktin, Przemyśl, and Lwów between 1634 and 1639. In 1640, he replaced Natan Shapira for 12 months as head of the yes…
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Yehudah Leib ben Betsal’el
(d. 1609), rabbi and scholar, known as Maharal of Prague. Yehudah Leib (or Löw [Heb., Liva’]; Maharal is an acronym based on the honorific Morenu ha-Rav Liva’, “our teacher, the Rabbi Löw”) was respected as an important …
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Yehudah Ḥasid ha-Levi
(ca. 1650–1700), popular mystical preacher. Yehudah Ḥasid ha-Levi was born in Dubno (according to other sources, in Siedlce), and went to Italy to study Kabbalah around 1678. Returning to Poland, he became the rabbi of S…
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Yehudis
(Pseudonym of Rokhl Bernshteyn; 1869–1942), Yiddish poet and writer. Virtually forgotten today, Yehudis is notable for her bold poems, several dramatic pieces, short stories, fragments of a novel, translations from Russi…
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Yeḥi’el Mikhl of Zlotshev
(1726–1781), Hasidic leader in Galicia. Yeḥi’el Mikhl was born in Brody. His father, Yitsḥak of Drohobycz (d. ca. 1760), a scholar and kabbalist, was a magid, rabbi, and dayan in Ostróg, Brody, and other towns. A Hasid o…
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Yisra’el ben Shabetai of Kozhenits
(ca. 1737–1814), rabbinic scholar and Hasidic leader. Known as the Magid of Kozhenits (Pol., Kozienice), Yisra’el ben Shabetai was one of the founders of Hasidism in central Poland. Born in Opatów, the son of a poor book…
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Yisra’el Me’ir ha-Kohen
(1838–1933), prominent halakhic authority and Orthodox Jewish leader. Yisra’el Me’ir ha-Kohen (Kagan; original surname Poupko), who became known as Ḥafets Ḥayim after the title of his first book, was one of the major rab…
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Yisra’el of Ruzhin
(1796–1850), Hasidic leader and tsadik. Famed for his eccentric personality, Yisra’el Friedman of Ruzhin (Yid., more properly Rizhin) presided over a Hasidic court whose opulence and wealth rivaled that of Polish nobilit…
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Yitsḥak ben Mosheh of Vienna
(ca. 1180–ca. 1250), legal scholar. Usually referred to as Yitsḥak Or Zaru‘a from the title of his main work, Yitsḥak ben Mosheh was born in Bohemia. He studied in Prague with Yitsḥak ben Ya‘akov ha-Lavan, the latter’s s…
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Yitsḥak ben Shemu’el ha-Levi
(1580–ca. 1646), halakhist and grammarian. Yitsḥak ben Shemu’el ha-Levi was born in Ludmir and was a student of Yehoshu‘a Falk. Yitsḥak’s younger brother was David, author of Ture zahav on the Shulḥan ‘arukh and known as…
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Yitsḥak ben Shimshon ha-Kohen
(ca. 1560–1624), son-in-law of Yehudah Leib ben Betsal’el (Maharal of Prague); scholar of midrash. Yitsḥak ben Shimshon ha-Kohen was born and died in Prague. According to family tradition, he served as rabbi in Nikolsbur…
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