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1,092 records
Yitsḥak ben Ya‘akov ha-Lavan of Prague
(fl. 12th century), Talmudic scholar. Also known as Yitsḥak of Bohemia and Yitsḥak of Regensburg, Yitsḥak ben Ya‘akov reputedly acquired the nickname ha-Lavan (White) because of the color of his hair, but according to ot…
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Yosef Shemu’el ben Tsevi of Kraków
(d. 1703), rabbi and Talmudist. Born to a rabbinic family in Krzemieniec (Kremenets), Yosef Shemu’el ben Tsevi served as a rabbinic judge in Kraków from 1663 to 1689, when he was appointed rabbi of Frankfurt am Main. The…
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Yung-yidish
(1918–1921), artistic and literary avant-garde group in Łódź. The founding of Yung-yidish, the first Yiddish artistic avant-garde group in Poland, grew out of a meeting in 1918 between poet Moyshe Broderzon and a group o…
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Yustman, Moyshe Bunem
(1889–1942), journalist, wit, and public affairs writer. Born in Warsaw to a Hasidic family, Moyshe Bunem Yustman (known also as Ba‘al Ye’ush [master of despair]) identified with Orthodox Jewry all his life. He began wri…
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Zabara, Nosn
(1908–1975), Yiddish writer. Born in Rogachev, Ukraine, into the family of a potter, Nosn Zabara received a traditional Jewish education, studied at a secondary school in nearby Novograd-Volynskii, and later worked in a …
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Zak, Avraam Isakovich
(1829–1893), banker, philanthropist, and public figure. Avraam Zak was born into a well-established family in Bobruisk (now Bobruysk, Belarus), where he may have been influenced by local maskilim. He was self-taught, mos…
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Zamenhof, Ludwik
(1859–1917), ophthalmologist, linguist, and inventor of Esperanto. Ludwik Zamenhof was born in the Polish border city of Białystok. Both his father, Markus, and his grandfather worked as foreign-language instructors. Zam…
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Zamość, Yisra’el ben Mosheh ha-Levi
(also Segal; ca. 1700–1772), early maskil who promoted the study of science and wrote commentaries on three classics of medieval Jewish thought. Yisra’el ben Mosheh was born in Bóbrka (near mod. L’viv) to an undistinguis…
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Zaretski, Ayzik
(1891–1956), Yiddish linguist, lexicologist, and educator. Born in Pinsk into the family of a Jewish schoolteacher and compiler of a Russian mathematics textbook, Ayzik Zaretski received a Talmudic education and graduate…
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Zaslavskii, David Iosifovich
(1880–1965), Bundist activist and Soviet publicist. Born in Kiev, David Zaslavskii became interested in Russian Jewish literature and Jewish history while still in his youth. In 1899, he took part in a Jewish student org…
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Zbytkower, Shmul
(d. 1801), merchant and court supplier; ancestor of the Bergson (Berekson) family. In 1756 or 1757, Shmul Zbytkower (also known as Shemu’el ben Ya‘akov Avigdor; Szmul Jakubowicz) arrived in Warsaw from the nearby village…
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Zederbaum, Aleksander
(1816–1893), editor and journalist. Aleksander Zederbaum was born in Zamość, Poland. After marrying in 1835, he moved to Lublin, and then in 1840 to Odessa, where he initially worked as a bookkeeper. He soon became a tai…
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Zel’dovich, Iakov Borisovich
(1914–1987), theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, physical chemist, and member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1958. Born in Minsk, Zel’dovich was raised in an educated family: his father was a lawyer and his moth…
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Zeyer, Julius
(1841–1901), Czech poet, dramatist, and novelist. Julius Zeyer’s father was a wealthy lumber merchant descended from Alsatian aristocracy; his mother came from a Jewish family in Prague, although she raised her children …
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Zhemchuzhina, Polina Semenovna
(1897–1970), Soviet public figure and wife of Viacheslav Molotov. Born Perl Karpovskaia, Polina Zhemchuzhina was the daughter of a tailor from Ekaterinoslav province. From 1911 until 1917, she worked in a cigarette facto…
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Zil’ber, Lev Aleksandrovich
(1894–1966), immunologist, virologist, and cancer researcher. Lev Aleksandrovich (Abelevich) Zil’ber was born in Novgorod province to the family of a military musician. He spent his childhood and youth in Pskov (northwes…
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Zingman, Kalmen
(1889–1929), Yiddish author and publisher. Kalmen Zingman (last name also rendered Singman) was born in Slobodka, near Kovno. He received a traditional Jewish education, but difficult family circumstances forced him to s…
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Zinov’ev, Grigorii Evseevich
(1883–1936), revolutionary and Soviet political figure. Grigorii Zinov’ev, known earlier as Ovsei-Gersh Aronovich Apfel’baum or Radomysl’skii, was born in Elisavetgrad, Kherson province, to the assimilated family of an o…
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Zirelson, Yehudah Leib
(1859–1941), rabbi, public figure, and writer. Yehudah Leib Zirelson (also Tsirel’son) was born in the shtetl of Kozelets, Chernigov province (mod. Ukr., Chernihiv). After receiving rabbinical ordination, he was chosen t…
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Zissu, Abraham Leib
(1888–1956), writer and journalist; Zionist political leader. Abraham Leib Zissu was born in Piatra Neamț, Moldavia, to a Hasidic family, and was familiar with traditional Talmudic and biblical literature. He made his de…
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