NAFTOLE-SHRAGE FAYGENZON (ca. 1800-ca.1886)
He was
born in Nidoki (Lyduokiai),
Vilkomir (Ukmergė) district, Lithuania. Until age twenty he studied in yeshivas,
later becoming a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment. He graduated from a Russian high school as an
external student in Vilna and for a time was a teacher of Russian in religious
elementary schools. He was the author of
an assortment of textbooks in Judeo-German and Hebrew for teaching Russian,
such as: Oytser loshn rusya (Treasury
of the Russian language), “translated into the Hebrew language and the language
of Ashkenaz and Judeo-German,” with a Russian dictionary including 7,000 words
(Vilna, 1874), 126 pp. and a preface of 18 pp.; Der kinder lerer fir di rusishe shprakhe (The children’s teacher
for the Russian language), with a short Russian-Yiddish dictionary and a number
of fables taken from Krylov (Vilna, 1877), 100 pp. He was also the author of letter-writing
manuals, among them: Mikhtav meshulash
(Triple letter), in three languages (Russian, Hebrew, and Judeo-German) (Vilna,
1873), 186 pp., adapted from Katav yosher (Honest writing) and M. Nayman’s
letter-writing manuals. Well-known among
his textbooks for learning Hebrew: Dikduk
lashon ever bederekh ketsara (Hebrew grammar in short order), in
Judeo-German (Vilna, 1874), 136 pp. He
contributed work to Hamagid (The
preacher) in Lik, Hamelits (The
advocate) in Odessa, and Hatsfira
(The siren) in Warsaw, in which he published articles on education and
translations from Russian literature under the pen names Nash and Neshef. Due to an error in the bibliography in
Fridberg’s Bet eked sefarim
(Library), he was confused with Sh. Sh. F. (Shafan the Scribe, 1838-1922),
whose uncles was Natole-Shrage Faygenzon.
Sources: Dr. A. Freyman, in Hebraesche Bibliographie (Frankfurt, 1918), p. 38; Sh. Bastomski, in
Di naye shul (Warsaw) 1 (1923), p.
50; A. R. Malachi, Otsar haleksikografiya
haivrit (Treasury of Hebrew lexicography) (New York, 1955), p. 24; D. H.,
in Hasefer (Jerusalem) (1964/1965),
pp. 50-51.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
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