KHAYIM PRES

KHAYIM PRES (January 4, 1843-February 21, 1894)

            He was born in Bialystok, Poland.  In 1860 he moved with his parents to Jerusalem and studied there in yeshivas.  He was a pioneer of the Yiddish press in the land of Israel.  He was a Talmud scholar and a Hebrew grammarian.  He published research on the Hebrew language and on the Karaites in: Pirḥe ḥavatselet (Daffodil blossoms) and Tiferet yerushalaim (Hope of Jerusalem) of which he was co-editor, among other venues.  He edited the biweekly Hebrew-Yidish Shaare tsiyon (Gates of Zion) (1876-1885)—among other items, he published there a twenty-part Hebrew novel set in Israel, Ge haḥizayon (Field of vision).  The newspaper suffered persecution from the Turkish authorities and appeared for a time under the name Hatsvi (The gazelle).  It was distributed outside Israel as well.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), p. 287; M. Unger, in Proletarishe gedank (New York) (July 1, 1936); Zamlbukh, likhvoyd dem tsvey hundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of the 250^th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936) (New York, 1937), pp. 171-74, with a bibliography.

Khayim Leyb Fuks