EZRIEL GINTSIG (GUENZIG)

EZRIEL GINTSIG (GUENZIG) (April 10, 1868-August 14, 1931)

            He was born in Cracow, Galicia, into a prominent scholarly family.  He received a Jewish and a general education.  In 1891 he graduated from the philosophy faculty at the University of Berlin.  Over the years 1901-1920, he served as the rabbi in Lashide (?), Czechoslovakia.  In 1921 he settled in Antwerp, where he was director of the Hebrew Tachkemoni high school.  His first publication was an article on Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages in Ivri anochi (I am Jewish) in Brod, later becoming the chief contributor to Hamagid (The preacher) in Cracow.  He also placed pieces in Hatsofe (The spectator) and Hayom (Today) in Warsaw, as well as in German Jewish periodicals.  In Yiddish he published articles in: Der morgn (The morning) in Lemberg; Parizer haynt (Paris today), Di yidishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper), and Der fraynd (The friend) in Antwerp; and from time to time in Haynt (Today) in Warsaw.  He was the author of a number of works in Hebrew and German, among them: Shemone maamarim (Eight essays), a collection of his articles on Jewish philosophy and Kabbala) (Antwerp, 1929), 152 pp.; Rabbi Israel Baal-Schem: der Stifter des Chassidismus, sein Leben und sein Lehre (R. Israel Baal Shem [Tov], the founder of Hassidism, his life and his teachings) (Brünn, 1908), 70 pp.; Rabi Avraham Abulafya (R. Abraham Abulafia) (Cracow, 1904), 34 pp.; Der Commentar des Karäers Jephet ben ‘Ali Halêvi zu den Proverbien (The commentary of the Karaite Jephet ben Ali Halevi on Proverbs) (Cracow, 1898); and a volume of pessimism and Judaism.  He was also the editor of the anthologies Haeshkol (The scholarly collection), 7 vols. (Cracow, 1888-1913), in which he published a series of articles on homiletical literature and Kabbala, and about the Kabbalist Moshe Cordovero, among other topics; and he edited the scholarly Jewish literary weekly Der fraynd in Antwerp (1923-1924), in which he published works on older and modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature and philosophy, as well as actual Jewish cultural problems.  He died in Antwerp.

Sources: Professor Y. Klausner, Historiya shel hasifrut haivrit haḥadasha (History of modern Hebrew literature), vol. 3 (Jerusalem, 1952), see index; M. Altman, Idishe almanakh (Jewish almanac) (Antwerp, 1933); Gershom Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934); Jüdisches Lexikon (Berlin, 1930), vol. 2, p. 1330.