Judah ben-Jonah Jeitteles (; March 1773 – 6 June 1838) was a
Bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
''
maskil
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Eur ...
'' and
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
writer.
Biography
Judah Jeitteles was born to prominent
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
physician in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, where he received a traditional
Jewish education
Jewish education ( he, חינוך, ''Chinuch'') is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Known as the "people of the book", Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish cul ...
.
An advocate of
education reform
Education reform is the name given to the goal of changing public education. The meaning and education methods have changed through debates over what content or experiences result in an educated individual or an educated society. Historically, t ...
in Jewish schools (including for the abolition of '' ḥeders'' and for the integration of Jewish studies into the curricula of secular schools), Jeitteles was appointed supervisor of the German-language Jewish school in Prague around 1812. At the age of 40, he was elected one of four communal leaders of Prague's Jewish community, but later settled in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
.
He devoted himself to the study of
Oriental languages
A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
under the direction of his brother
Baruch Jeitteles
Baruch Jeitteles ( he, ברוך ייטלס) (22 April 1762 – 18 December 1813) was a Jewish scholar, writer, and doctor from Bohemia, associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement (''Haskalah''). His teachers were Rabbi Yechezkel Landau of ...
. He was the first to compose in Hebrew a grammar of
Biblical Aramaic
Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Targums – Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures.
History
During ...
, its title being ''Mevo lashon Aramit'' (Prague, 1813). He edited and wrote commentaries on the books of
Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...
,
Kings
Kings or King's may refer to:
*Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings
*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":
**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts
**The ''Shahnameh'' ...
, the
Twelve Minor Prophets
The Minor Prophets or Twelve Prophets ( he, שנים עשר, ''Shneim Asar''; arc, תרי עשר, ''Trei Asar'', "Twelve") ( grc, δωδεκαπρόφητον, "the Twelve Prophets"), occasionally Book of the Twelve, is a collection of propheti ...
,
Chronicles
Chronicles may refer to:
* ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible
* Chronicle, chronological histories
* ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis
* ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed
* ''The Idhu ...
,
Ezra
Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...
,
Nehemiah
Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...
, and
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
for
Anton Edler von Schmid
Anton Edler von Schmid (23 January 1765 – 27 June 1855) was an Austrian printer and publisher of Hebrew books.
Early life and education
Anton Schmid was born in Zwettl, Lower Austria. His father, a cook at the Zwettl monastery, destined him fo ...
's new (fourth) edition of the Bible with German translation. Among other works, Jeitteles also published ''Siḥah be-erez ha-ḥayyim'' (Brünn, 1800), ''Mizmor le-todah'' (Prague, 1817), and ''Bene ha-neʻurim'' (Prague, 1821), besides contributing poetry and essays on history and philology to '' Ha-Meassef'' and '. He left in
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
a complete Aramaic-German dictionary, which explains especially the root words of the Aramaicisms occurring in the Hebrew text of the
Max Emanuel Stern
Max Emanuel Stern (9 November 1811 – 9 February 1873), also known as Mendel b'ri Stern (), was a Hungarian-born Hebraist, writer, poet, and translator.
Biography
Born to Jewish parents in Presburg in 1811, Stern first studied under his father ...
. Introduction by
Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev
Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev (, ; 18 August 176412 March 1811) was a Galician Jewish philologist, lexicographer, and Biblical scholar. He was a member of the Me'assefim group of Hebrew writers, and a "forceful proponent of revitalizing the Hebrew lan ...