AHARON-ZE’EV (AARON ZEEV) AESCOLY

AHARON-ZE’EV (AARON ZEEV) AESCOLY (1901-December 3, 1948)

Adopted name of Arn-Volf Vayntroyb (Weintraub), he was born in Lodz to well-to-do, Hassidic parents.  His father was a construction contractor.  He studied in yeshivas and in a secular high school.  During the years of WWI, he was in Berlin, returning to Lodz in 1918.  He was back in Berlin in 1922.  He was a student at R. Chaim Heller’s yeshiva and simultaneously at Berlin University.  He published reportage, correspondence essays, and short stories in Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily news) under such pen names as A. V. Vayntroyb and A. Z. Vinogradov.  In 1926 he was in Paris, and from 1930 he was living in Palestine.  He was a teacher in a seminary for educators.  He was a member of the cultural committee of Histadrut.  He contributed to Davar (Word), Haolam (The world), Tarbits (Academy), Ktuvim (Writings), Leshonenu (Our language), Kriyat sefer (Republic of letters), Tsiyon (Zion), and virtually all of the literary-scientific publications in Israel.  During WWII, he volunteered and served as an officer in the British army.  He published a chapter of a larger work, Ha-chasidut be-polin (Hassidism in Poland), which appeared in Y. Halpern’s anthology, Bet yisrael be-polin (The house of Israel in Poland) (Jerusalem, 1953); chapters concerning the Falashas in Tarbits, and other writings about them.  He wrote works in various languages, primarily in Hebrew, concerning Jewish history and ethnology, including: Tenuat tuvianski ben ha-yehudim (The Tuvianski movement among Jews) (Jerusalem, 1932), 62 pp.; Yisrael, pirke etnologyah, yediat ha-am (Israel, section on ethnology, information on the people) (Jerusalem, 1937), 252 pp.; Kehilat lodzh, toldot ir ve-em be-yisrael (The community of Lodz, a history of the city and the fount of Israel) (Jerusalem, 1948), 237 pp.; Sipur david ha-reuveni (The story of David Ha-Reuveni) (Jerusalem, 1940), 240 pp.; Ha-falashim yehude chabash (The Falashas, the Jews of Ethiopia) (Jerusalem, 1943), 206 pp., published as well in a French translation (Recueil de textes falachas: Introduction, textes éthiopiens) (Paris, 1951, 284 pp.); an edition of Sefer ha-chezyonot (The book of revelations) by Moshe Luzzato, with a preface and notes (Jerusalem, 1953), 272 pp.; an edition of Yesode ha-torah (Foundations of the Torah), by S. D. Luzzato, adaptation with annotations (Jerusalem, 1946), 92 pp.  In German: Bibliothek Jacob H. Wagner (Berlin, 1926), pp. 31-32.  In French: Introduction à l’étude des heresies religieuses parmi les Juifs: la Kabbala, le Hassidisme (Paris, 1928), 202 pp.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Dr. Y. Shatsky, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna, 1934); Y. Baer, Kiryat sefer (Republic of letters), vav-zayin (Jerusalem, 1939); Reichert, in Sefer ha-shanah shel ha-itonaim (Journalism yearbook) (Tel Aviv, 1948); Z. Shazar, Or ishim (Light of men) (Tel Aviv, 1954).