Judah Leib Gordon
 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Hebrew. (February 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Judah Leib Gordon | |
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| Born | December 7, 1830 Vilna, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | September 16, 1892 (aged 61) St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
Judah Leib Gordon (
Biography
Gordon was born to well-to-do Jewish parents who owned a hotel in
With the financial situation deteriorating at home, Gordon, then twenty-two, decided it was time for him to pursue a career. He received a teaching certificate from the local rabbinical college, and became a school teacher in some of the smaller towns that housed major
In late 1871 Gordon was invited by the
That same year Gordon became an editor for the Hebrew newspaper
Literary work
Gordon took a leading part in the modern revival of the Hebrew language and culture. His satires did much to rouse the Russian Jews to a new sense of the reality of life, and Gordon was the apostle of enlightenment in the ghettos. Much of his poetry revolves around biblical and historical themes. These include The Love of David and Michal (1857), King Zedekiah in Prison (1879), Judah's Parables (1859), David and Barzilai, Osenath, Daughter of Potiphera, From between the Lion's Teeth, and From the Depths of the Sea.
His works were intended to disseminate Enlightenment values and had a profound impact on Jewish life. Gordon also published collections of fables, most of them translated. In works such as "Little Fables for Big Children", he continues to advocate for the adoption of Enlightenment values, as he does in his memoirs, published in the last year of his life.
Among his other writing on social issues is "The Point on Top of the Yodh" (Kotzo shel yud), dealing with the rights of women. The poem, which he dedicated to his friend the Hebraist Miriam Markel-Mosessohn,[6][7] describes a narrow-minded rabbi who destroys a woman's chance for happiness by invalidating her get (divorce document) – due to a trifling spelling mistake.
His poems were collected in four volumes, Kol Shire Yehudah (St. Petersburg, 1883–1884); his novels in Kol Kitbe Yehuda (Collected Writings of Gordon,
References
- ^ Stanislawski (1988), p. 110–111.
- ^ Stanislawski (1988), p. 111–113.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
- ^ Stanislawski (1988), p. 137-139.
- ^ Holtzman, Avner (August 31, 2010). "Melits, Ha-." YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. www.yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
- ISBN 9780878204236. p. 14-15, 24.
- ^ Balin, Carole B. (March 1, 2009)."Miriam Markel-Mosessohn." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2016-08-25.
Further reading
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gordon, Leon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 254.
- Ben-Yishai, Aharon Zeev (2007). "Gordon, Judah Leib". In ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
- Stanislawski, Michael (1988). "For Whom Do I Toil?": Judah Leib Gordon and the Crisis of Russian Jewry. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195364644
- Shamir, Ziva (1979). "O Hebrew Woman, Who Knows Your Life: A Poetical Footnote to History". Ariel - A Quarterly Review of Arts and Letters in Israel. 49.
External links
Rosenthal, Herman; Günzburg, Baron David von; Seligsohn, Max (1904). "Gordon, Leon (Judah Löb ben Asher)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 47–48.- "Gordon, Yehuda Leib". Junior Judaica: Encyclopaedia Judaica for Youth. Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on September 23, 2016.
- Works by Judah Leib Gordon at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
