ELYAKIM-GETSL
HIRSHENZOHN
He was born in Mohilev,
Byelorussia. He worked in the field of
commerce. He was the author of: Gildn-gold rekhnung (Golden accounting)
(Mohilev, 1810), 74 pp., with a preface in Hebrew and Yiddish in which the
author introduces the hard conditions of Jewish businessmen in earlier times in
Poland, for on the one hand they were not allowed to engage in any other livelihood
besides commerce, and at the same time the Germans deceived the Polish Jews who
came to Leipzig to purchase goods, and in exchanging Polish zlotys for German Thalers they were swindled.
In his “proposal in the language of Ashkenaz,” he wrote: “I have written
this little volume for you, my friends, so that you will easily be able to properly
account in business affairs in Leipzig commodities the Thalers in gold and thus easily know what commodities amount to in
our silver money.”
Sources:
Bernhard Friedberg, Toldot hadefus haivri
bepolanya (History of Hebrew typography in Poland) (Tel Aviv, 1950);
Friedberg, in Bet eked sefarim.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
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