Mekitze Nirdamim

Mekitze Nirdamim (Hebrew: מְקִיצֵי נִרְדָּמִים‎, Meḳitse nirdamim, lit. "Rousers of Those Who Slumber") is a literary society dedicated to the retrieval, preservation, and publication of medieval Hebrew texts.[1] It was first established at Lyck, Prussia in 1861, and is now based out of Jerusalem, Israel.

Mekitze Nirdamim Society
חֶבְרַת מְקִיצֵי נִרְדָּמִים
FormationSeptember 12, 1861 (1861-09-12)
FounderEliezer L. Silbermann
Rabbi Nathan M. Adler
Michael Sachs
Samuel David Luzzatto
Founded atLyck, Kingdom of Prussia
HeadquartersJerusalem, Israel (since 1934)
Official language
Hebrew

History

Mekitze Nirdamim was first established in Lyck, Prussia in 1861, mainly by the efforts of Eliezer L. Silbermann, editor of the Hebrew weekly Ha-Magid.[2] The Society's first board consisted of prominent scholars and philanthropists such as Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler, Albert Cohn, S. D. Luzzatto, Moses Montefiore, Michael Sachs, Mattityahu Strashun, and Joseph Zedner.[3][4]

The organization's focus on realigning Haskalah and tradition among European Jews was met with opposition from some maskilim.[5] By 1864, nonethelessss, the number of subscribers stood at 1,200.[6] Among its early publications were Luzzatto's 1864 edition of Judah Halevi's Diwan,[7] Salomon Buber's edition of the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana (1868), and parts of Isaac Lampronti's rabbinic encyclopedia Paḥad Yizhak (1864–74).[8]

The Society became increasingly inactive during the 1870s.[9] After Silbermann's death in 1882, Mekitze Nirdamim was successfully revived at Berlin in 1885 by Abraham Berliner, alongside Moses Levi Ehrenreich, Joseph Derenbourg, David Günzburg, Solomon Joachim Halberstam, Abraham Harkavy, Marcus Jastrow, David Kaufmann, and Mattityahu Strashun.[10] Amid the rise of Nazism in Germany, the Society was moved to Jerusalem in 1934, under the leadership of then-president Aron Freimann.[9][11] Agnon served as president of the Society from 1954 to 1970, and was succeeded by Gershom Scholem.[6]

Notable members

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gottheil, Richard; Waldstein, A. S. (1904). "Meḳiẓe Nirdamim". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 447–448.

  1. Roth, Cecil, ed. (1962). "Mekitze Nirdamim". The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 1294. OCLC 1036870767.
  2. Peixotto, Benjamin Franklin, ed. (May 1887). "Hebrew Works Published by the 'MeKitzē-Nirdamim'". The Menorah. New York: Menorah Publishing Company. 2 (5): 263–264.
  3. Posner, Raphael; Ta-Shma, Israel M., eds. (1975). The Hebrew Book: An Historical Survey. Keter Publishing House Jerusalem. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-7065-1389-9. OCLC 804898547.
  4. Raisin, Max (1919). A History of the Jews in Modern Times. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company. pp. 15–16.
  5. Boulouque, Clémence (2020). Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh's Jewish Universalism. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-5036-1311-9. LCCN 2020937846.
  6. Ta-Shma, Israel Moses (2007). "Mekiẓe Nirdamim". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. 13 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 797.
  7. Yahalom, Joseph (1995). "Diwan and Odyssey: Judah Halevi and the Secular Poetry of Medieval Spain in the Light of New Discoveries from Petersburg". Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos. 44: 23–45. ISSN 0544-408X.
  8. Spector, Shmuel, ed. (2001). "Lyck". The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust. 2. New York: New York University Press. p. 776. ISBN 978-0-8147-9377-0.
  9. Meir, Yonatan (2013). "The Origins of Ḥevrat Mekiẓe Nirdamim in Eastern Europe". In Elizur, Shulamit (ed.). From Oblivion to the Bookshelf: The 150th Anniversary of Mekize Nirdamim (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mekitze Nirdamim. pp. 33–45. ISBN 978-965-462-012-3.
  10. Landman, Isaac, ed. (1942). "Mekize Nirdamim ('Awakers of Those Asleep')". The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: An Authoritative and Popular Presentation of Jews and Judaism Since the Earliest Times. 7. New York. p. 449. OCLC 999879047.
  11. Heuberger, Rachel (2011). "Aron Freimann and the Development of Jewish Bibliography in Germany in the 20th Century". In Leicht, Reimund; Freudenthal, Gad (eds.). Studies on Steinschneider: Moritz Steinschneider and the Emergence of the Science of Judaism in Nineteenth-Century Germany. Leiden: Brill. p. 334. ISBN 978-90-04-22645-6.
  12. Hoffman, Anne Golomb (1991). Between Exile and Return: S. Y. Agnon and the Drama of Writing. Albany: SUNY Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7914-0540-6.
  13. Butler, Menachem (22 July 2020). "In Memory of Shmuel Ashkenazi, Bibliographer of the Hebrew Book". Tablet. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  14. Sassoon, Batsheva (20 November 2017). "Ancient Jewish Poetry & the Amazing World of Piyut: Interview with Professor Shulamit Elizur". The Seforim Blog.
  15. Berliner, A., ed. (1899). Kobez Al Jad (in Hebrew). 9. Berlin: Vereins M'kize Nirdamim.
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