Bernhard Nathanson (22 April 1832 – 2 February 1916), born David Ber Nathanson or Dov Ber Nathanson (, ), was a Jewish Russian

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

journalist and author. He was the biographer and publisher of the writings of

Isaac Baer Levinsohn Isaac Baer Levinsohn (; October 13, 1788 – February 13, 1860), also known as the Ribal (), was a Jewish scholar of Hebrew, a satirist, a writer and Haskalah leader. He has been called "the Moses Mendelssohn, Mendelssohn of Russia." In his ''Be ...

Biography

Bernhard Nathanson was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Satanov,

Podolia Podolia or Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and northeastern Moldova (i.e. northern Transnistria). Podolia is bordered by the Dniester River and Boh River. It features ...

. He his early Hebrew education under Yosef Tzvi Polichinetzki and then under the supervision of his own father, and received rabbinical ordination in 1850. Under the influence of the

Haskalah The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Wester ...

, Nathanson went to

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

after his father's death in 1853, where he devoted himself to both

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and secular studies. There he co-operated with Jacob Israel Levinsohn, the nephew of

, in copying and revising the latter's manuscripts. Nathanson was occupied for three years on Levinsohn's ''Aḥiyah ha-Shiloni ha-Ḥozeh'' and ''Zrubavel''. From 1871 to 1875 Nathanson lived in various places in

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

, settling in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

in 1875 in connection with the publication of the complete works of Levinsohn. He died there in February 1916 at the age of 83.

Publications

Nathanson's first article, "Le-Torah veli-Te'udah" ('Torah and Testimony'), was published in '' Ha-Maggid'' in 1864. He later serves tas the

, Kishinev, and Warsaw correspondent for ''

Ha-Melitz ''HaMelitz'' (Hebrew: ) was the first Hebrew newspaper in the Russian Empire. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum in Odessa in 1860. History ''HaMelitz'' first appeared as a weekly, and it began to appear daily in 1886. From 1871, it was publis ...

'' in St. Petersburg, to which he also contributed stories and impressions of Jewish life. The more important among his articles, contributed chiefly to ''Ha-Melitz'', are: "Tekunat Sefat 'Ivrit ve-Hargashoteha" (1868); "Kerobaz (1869); "'Al ha-Tzaddikim ve-'al ha-Ḥasidim" (1869); "Lefanim veha-Yom" (1870); "Zikronot le-Korot Odessa" (1870). Nathanson wrote also: ''Ma'areket Sifre Kodesh'', Biblical onomasticon (Odessa, 1871); ''Sefer ha-Zikhronot'', biography of Isaac Baer Levinsohn (Warsaw, 1875); ''Sefer ha-Milim Zarim-Melakhutiyim'', lexicon of foreign words and technical terms found in the

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

and

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

ic literature (Warsaw, 1880).

External links

Works of Bernhard Nathanson
at the

HathiTrust Digital Library HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digiti ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathanson, Bernhard 1832 births 1916 deaths Hebrew-language writers Jews from the Russian Empire Journalists from the Russian Empire Male biographers Polish biographers 19th-century biographers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian biographers People of the Haskalah