Gabriel Judah Lichtenfeld (; 1811,

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

— 22 March 1887,

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) was a Jewish-Polish maskilic mathematician, poet, and author. He wrote for '' Ha-Shachar'', '' Ha-Tzefirah'', ''Izraelita'', and Polish newspapers, mostly on mathematical topics.

Biography

A descendant of

Moses Isserles ). He is not to be confused with Meir Abulafia, known as "Ramah" ( he, רמ״ה, italic=no, links=no), nor with Menahem Azariah da Fano, known as "Rema MiPano" ( he, רמ״ע מפאנו, italic=no, links=no). Rabbi Moses Isserles ( he, משה � ...

, Lichtenfeld showed early ability as a

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

ic scholar. He later became familiar with

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, German, French, and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

, and made a special study of philosophy and mathematics. In the Hebrew periodical '' Ha-Shachar'', there appeared a series of Hebrew articles by Lichtenfeld which attracted attention. His reputation was enhanced by his series of articles, in the Polish periodical ''Izraelita'', on Jewish mathematicians. Lichtenfeld is known also by his polemics with

Hayyim Selig Slonimski Ḥayyim Selig ben Ya'akov Slonimski () (March 31, 1810 – May 15, 1904), also known by his acronym ḤaZaS (), was a Hebrew publisher, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, science writer, and rabbi. He was among the first to write books on scie ...

on mathematical subjects. Among other works, Lichtenfeld was the author of ''Yedi'ot ha-Shi'urim'' (1865, "Science of Measurement"), ''Tzofnat Pa'neach'' (1874), a critical review of Slonimski's ''Yesode Ḥokmat ha-Shi'ur'', ''Tosefot'' (1875), a polemic against Slonimski, ''Kohen Lelo Elohim'' (1876), a book of mathematical criticisms, and ''Sippurim be-Shir ve'Shirim Shonim'' (1877, "Stories in Verse and Selected Poems"), a collection of poems and rimed prose by himself and by his son-in-law

I. L. Peretz Isaac Leib Peretz ( pl, Icchok Lejbusz Perec, yi, יצחק־לייבוש פרץ) (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Cha ...

. Lichtenfeld's main book on mathematics, ''Bo'u Ḥeshbon'', was published posthumously in 1895.

References

* Fuenn, ''Keneset Yisrael'', ii. 356; * Zeitlin, William. ''Bibliotheca Hebraica Post-Mendelssohniana''. p. 209. * 1811 births 1887 deaths 19th-century Polish Jews Polish mathematicians People of the Haskalah Scientists from Lublin {{Poland-mathematician-stub