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In Hebrew. (2), 66 pages. 172 x 137 mm. With an additional title page in Russia. WorldCat: Libraries worldwide that own item: 2. Tel Aviv U. and Ntil Lib. Israel. With label and purple ink oval rubber stamp impression of a Koningsberg, Prussia (at the time, Kaliningrad, Russia today), bookdealer who sold this book. Decorated (marbled) foredge. Elhanan Leib Lewinsky (Elchanan Loeb Lewinski) (March 21, 1857 Podberezye, Vilnius District, Russian Empire, now in Lithuania - October 27, 1910 Odessa, Russian Empire, now Russian occupied Ukraine) was a Hebrew and Yiddish writer, a Zionist leader, and one of the first members of the Hovevei Zion movement in Russia. Like many of his generation, in his youth he was swept up by the Haskalah movement and he turned to secular studies, including Russian. Roaming from town to town in the Russian Pale, he supported himself by giving private lessons. In 1880 he registered at the University of Kharkov, but after the pogroms of 1881 he traveled to Eretz Israel and came back an ardent Zionist. His MASA LE?ERETZ ISRAEL is the first futuristic novel written in modern Hebrew. It described a trip to Eretz Israel in the year 5800 on the Jewish calendar (2040 C.E.) In his book the country is established by the Hovevy Zion movement, is socialistic, technologically advanced, and peace seeking, with Jerusalem as its capital. He is right on the money except for the socialism, and Hovevei Zion can take only partial credit. The trip is described in the first person by a Hebrew teacher who just married a woman who, like him, is also devoted to Hebrew culture. Even though they live abroad, they travel to Israel for their honeymoon. Hebrew is spoken everywhere. Lewinsky?s book precedes Theodore Herzl?s utopian novel Altneuland by ten years, but did not get the distribution and attention of Herzl?s book. This is at least in part because Lewinsky wrote his work in Hebrew while Herzl wrote his in German, and Herzl had a charismatic personality and great political prominence. Lewinski became an active propagandist and organizer of Hovevei Zion, settled in Odessa, and befriended its circle of Hebrew writers. In 1889 he joined the Benei Moshe society founded by Ahad Ha-Am. In 1896 he became representative of Eretz Israel?s "Carmel" wine company in Russia, was the branch manager of Carmel Eretz Israel in Odessa (?Carmel Odessa?), and on his travels through Jewish communities in Russia, he combined Zionist activities with his occupation as a wine distributor. He was a close friend of Ahad HaAm and participated in several Zionist congresses He was the moving spirit behind much of the Jewish community work in Odessa, was one of the founders of the Moriah publishing house in Odessa, whose books served as a base for the library of the modern Hebrew school, by supplying textbooks and basic books in various subjects, all in Hebrew. He served as treasurer and preacher in the Zionist synagogue, Yavneh, and supported various literary enterprises. He was one of the founders of Ivriyyah, a movement for the revival of the Hebrew language, and also published the first Yiddish daily paper in Odessa, Gut Morgen in 1910. He gained his place in Hebrew literature through his popular feuilletons. His first articles in this style were published in Ha-Meliz in 1891-1892. Subsequently, they appeared in Ha-Zofeh, Ha-Zefirah in Hebrew, and in Gut Morgen under the pseudonym Darshan Zaken ("Old Preacher") in Yiddish. His most important feuilletons appear in Ha-Shilo'ah, 1-23 (1897-1910) under the title Mahshavot u-Ma'asim ("Thoughts and Actions") and under the pseudonym Rabbi Karov. The Lewinsky Teachers Seminary in Tel Aviv is named after him, as is the Shuk Lewinsky in Tel Aviv and many cities in Israel have a Lewinsky Street. Seller Inventory # 015932
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