Friday, 24 March 2017

TSVI-HIRSH-YOYSEF LEYBOVITSH

TSVI-HIRSH-YOYSEF LEYBOVITSH (1863-November 20, 1885)
            He was born in Botoșani, Romania.  He studied in religious primary school and yeshiva, and he then became a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment.  He was active in the Ḥibat Tsiyon (Love of Zion) movement.  He cofounded the first Zionist association Moriya in Botoșani.  He traveled around the Romanian hinterland, giving speeches on behalf of the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel.  He began writing in both Yiddish and Hebrew: correspondence pieces for Ivri anokhi (I am Jewish) in Brod (Brody) in 1881, later writing for: Ḥavatselet (Daffodil) in Jerusalem, Hamelits (The advocate) in Odessa, and the Romanian Jewish Israel (Israel).  He was editor of the biweekly serial Hatokea (The trumpeter), “a newspaper for the Jewish people” which bore the motto: “And he blows the shofar to warn the people” [Ezekiel 33.3].  He translated from French the children’s play, Shever gaon (Pride before a fall) (Czernowitz, 1881), 30 pp.  He also wrote under the pen name Tsl”tsl.  During his travels he became ill, barely managed to reach Botoșani, and died there.

Sources: Dr. M. Ernprayz, in Ivri anokhi (Brod) (December 4, 1885); E. R. Malachi, in Pinkes fun amopteyl fun yivo (Records of the American division of YIVO) (New York) 2 (1929), pp. 84-85; Sh. Roman, in Filologishe shriftn (Vilna) 3 (1929), p. 529; Dr. Joseph Klausner, Ḥibat tsiyon beromaniya (Love of Zion in Romania) (Jerusalem, 1958), pp. 167, 259; Y. Yosef Kahan, in Areshet (Jerusalem) 3 (1958-1959), pp. 336-37.
Khayim Leyb Fuks


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