Samuel Joseph Fuenn

Template:Short description Template:Wikidata image Samuel Joseph Fuenn (Template:Langx; 15 October 1818 – 11 January 1891),Template:Notetag also known as Rashi Fuenn () and Rashif (), was a Lithuanian Hebrew writer, scholar, printer, and editor. He was a leading figure of the eastern European Haskalah, and an early member of Ḥovevei Zion.Template:R

Biography

Fuenn was born in Vilna, Russian Empire, the son of merchant and Torah scholar Yitsḥak Aizik Fuenn of Grodno.Template:R Though he received a traditional religious education until the age of 17,Template:R he also acquired an extensive general knowledge of German literature and other secular subjects, and became proficient in Russian, French, Latin, Polish, and English.Template:R He afterwards joined Vilna's circle of young maskilim.Template:R

In 1848 the government appointed him teacher of Hebrew and Jewish history in the newly founded rabbinical school of Vilna.Template:R Fuenn filled this position with great distinction till 1856, when he resigned. The government then appointed him superintendent of the Jewish public schools in the district of Vilna,Template:R in which he introduced instruction in secular studies and modern languages.Template:R Since Fuenn (Russian финѣ) was employed in the Russian civil service, there was a special feature for him as a Jew, he had to legally sign in Russian according to the applicable Russian laws. Excerpt from the text of the law § 6 The Jew of the Russian Empire in translation: "The use of the Jewish language is not permitted in legal transactions. However, Hebrew home wills are permissible. If a Jew who does not speak any language other than Jewish, a document written or signed in Hebrew must be accompanied by a translation and the signature duly notarized.Template:RTemplate:R

He was a prolific writer, devoting his activity mainly to the fields of history and literature.Template:R With Eliezer Lipman Hurwitz he edited the short-lived Hebrew periodical Pirḥe tzafon ('Northern Flowers', 1841–43), a review of history, literature, and exegesis.Template:R For twenty-one years (1860–81), he directed the paper Ha-Karmel ('The Carmel'; at first a weekly, but from 1871 a monthly), devoted to Hebrew literature and Jewish life, with supplements in Russian and German.Template:R The paper contained many academic articles by the leading Jewish scholars of Europe, besides numerous contributions from Fuenn's own pen,Template:R including a serialized autobiography entitled Dor ve-dorshav.Template:R He opened a new Hebrew printing press in Vilna in 1863.Template:R

Besides his scholarly work, Fuenn owned some property in Vilna, including a bathhouse on Zarechye Street.Template:R He took an active part in the administration of the city and in its charitable institutions, and was for many years an alderman.Template:R In acknowledgment of his services the government awarded him two medals.Template:R He also presided over the third Ḥovevei Zion conference in Vilna, at which he, Samuel Mohilever, and Asher Ginzberg were chosen to direct the affairs of the delegate societies.Template:R

Fuenn died in Vilna on 11 January 1891. He bequeathed his entire estate to his son, Dr. Benjamin Fuenn, his daughter having converted to Catholicism some years earlier.Template:R After Benjamin's death, Fuenn's extensive library was added to the collection of the Template:Ill.Template:R

Personal life

Fuenn was married off by his parents at a young age. His first wife died in 1845 while their daughter was still a baby, and his second wife died in the 1848 cholera pandemic, shortly after giving birth to their son Benjamin. He married a third wife in 1851.Template:R

His niece was the Labour Zionist politician Manya Shochat.Template:R

Work

Publications

File:Fuenn Ha-Otzar.jpg

Title page of Ha-otsar (1903 edition)

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Samuel Joseph Finn's (Russian финѣ) Russian signature

• Two lectures (one delivered by the author; the other translated from German).Template:R
• Chronology of Biblical history.Template:R
• A Russian language textbook.Template:R
• A history of the Jews and Jewish literature from the destruction of the Temple to 1170.Template:R
• A history of the Jews of Vilna, with an introduction by Mattityahu Strashun.Template:R
• A history of the Jews and their literature, in two volumes (the first dealing with the period extending from the banishment of Jehoiachin to the death of Alexander the Great; the second from Alexander's death to the installation of Simon Maccabeus as high priest and prince).Template:R
• Selected letters of Hebrew stylists from Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut to modern times.Template:R
• A fictional narrative based on people from the time of the Geonim, translated a German work of the same name by Lehmann.Template:R
• Hebrew translation of Moses Mendelssohn's Die Sache Gottes.Template:R
• Hebrew adaptation of Lehmann's Graf und Jude.Template:R
• Russian laws relating to conscription.Template:R
• A Hebrew translation of a German novel by Philippson.Template:R
• A Hungarian village tale by Hurwitz, translated from German into Hebrew.Template:R
• Biographies of notable Jews of Crimea and Turkey in the 14th–15th centuries.Template:R
• Essay on the value and significance of the Hebrew language and literature in the development of culture among Russian Jews.Template:R
• Hebrew adaptation of Honigmann's Die Erbschaft.Template:R
• A Hebrew and Aramaic dictionary giving Russian and German equivalents for the words of the Bible, Mishnah, and Midrashim.Template:R
• Biographical lexicon of notable Jews.Template:R

Unpublished work

Fuenn left in manuscript form a treatise on Jewish law entitled Darkhei Hashem ('The Paths of God'), written as a response to Alexander McCaul anti-Jewish work The Old Paths.Template:R Other unpublished works included Ha-moreh ba-emek ('The Teacher in the Valley'), a commentary on Maimonides' Moreh nevukhim; Mishna berurah ('Clarified Teaching') and Ḥokhmat ḥakhamim ('Wisdom of the Sages'), commentaries on the Mishnah; Ha-Torah veha-zeman ('The Torah and Time'), on the evolution of laws and regulations; Sum sekhel, glosses on the Bible; Pirḥe Levanon ('Flowers of Lebanon'), a collection of verses; and Bein ha-perakim ('Between the Chapters'), a commentary on Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer.Template:R

External links

• Works by Fuenn at the Template:Ill

References

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