Observe Anniversary of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, Russian Hebrew Scholar

(Jewish Daily Bulletin Mail Service)

A memorial meeting on the occasion of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the death of the famous Russian Hebrew scholar and writer, Isaac Baer Levinsohn, was held here under the auspices of the Ort. The meeting was held in the Locksmiths’ School of the Ort which was erected this year, and which is regarded as a memorial building to the scholar who in his works, written about a hundred years ago. urged the need of promoting artisanship and agriculture among the Jews.

All the pupils of the school were present. The life story of Isaac Baer Levinsohn was related and his works reviewed. A speaker compared him with Moses Mendelssohn. It is intended to establish a library and a dressmaking workshop for girls in the house in which Levinsohn lived.

Isaac Baer Levinsohn, who was born at Kremenitz in 1788, died there in 1860. He wrote a number of works, the most important of which is his “Teuddah be-Yisrael.” He urged in the book the study of the scriptures before the Talmud and the necessity of studying secular languages, especially the language of the fatherland. It urged also the study of science and literature and the great importance for the Jews of engaging in agricultural and industrial work, strongly advising the abandonment by the Jews of small trading and other uncertain sources of livelihood.

In his “Bet Yehuda.” which gives a clear exposition of Jewish religious philosophy, he suggests also at the end a plan for the re-organization of Jewish education in Russia. He urged the necessity of founding rabbinical seminaries fashioned after the German institutions, to train the Jewish youth in religious and secular learning, opening elementary Jewish schools throughout the Pale, abolishing the institution of Melamdim and establishing agricultural and industrial schools. The book exerted a powerful influence on the Jews of Russia and gave a plan of action to the progressive elements in Russian Jewry. It acquired renown also outside of Russia. It was translated into Polish and Geiger read several chapters of it before an audience in the Breslau synagogue.

Levinsohn drew up and submitted to the Government a number of projects for the amelioration of the condition of the Jews in Russia, including a plan for the establishment of Jewish colonies, which obtained careful consideration from the Czar Nicholas I, who wrote him a personal letter in regard to his plan. The establishment of Jewish agricultural colonies in Bessarabia in 1838-39 and later undoubtedly owed much to Levinsohn’s suggestions. The Government in appreciation of his services offered him monetary rewards and important official positions which, however, he declined.

Dr. Ernst Benedikt, publisher and editor of the “Neue Freie Presse”, of Vienna, denied the reported sale of his paper to the “Berliner Tageblatt”.