YITSKHOK HIRSHENZON

YITSKHOK HIRSHENZON (1844-1896)

            He was born in Pinsk, older brother of Khayim Hirshenzon.  As a child, he was brought to Jerusalem.  Following the death of his father, he became the headmaster (rosh yeshiva) of Sukat Shalom (Tabernacle of peace), which his father had founded.  He earned a name for himself as a publisher of Hebrew religious texts and as a collector of rare manuscripts which he published with his own annotations.  He also edited Ḥayim Vital’s Olat tamid (Eternal offering), with his own marginalia.  In the field of Jewish learning, he published treatises in his brother’s journal Hamisdrona (To the vestibule) and in Sh.-P. Rabinovitsh’s Kneset yisrael (Congregation of Israel).  In 1887 his Hebrew-language pamphlet appeared in print, Davar hashemita (On the sabbatical year).  Together with his brother Khayim, he edited and published Hatsvi lebeys yankev (The gazelle to the House of Jacob), supplement to Hatsvi (1892-1893) in Jerusalem.  In 1896 he brought out in London a Hebrew weekly newspaper, Teḥiyat yisrael (The revival of Israel), in the spirit of religious Zionism.  He died in London.

Source: Encyclopedia Judaica (Berlin), vol. 8.