Isaac Jacob Weissberg (; 1841 – July 1904) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

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 ...

writer and educator. He contributed articles to various Hebrew periodicals, including ''

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 ...

'', '' Ha-Maggid'', '' Ha-Tzfira'', ''

Ha-Shaḥar ''Ha-Shaḥar'' () was a Hebrew language, Hebrew-language monthly periodical, published and edited at Vienna by Peretz Smolenskin from 1868 to 1884. The journal contained scientific articles, essays, biographies, and literature, as well as genera ...

'', ''Ha-Boker Or'', ''Otzar ha-Sifrut'', '' Aḥiasaf'', ''

Ha-Shiloaḥ ''Ha-Shiloaḥ'' () was a Hebrew language, Hebrew-language literary journal, founded by Ahad Ha'am and the Ahi'asaf Publishing House in 1896. He edited the journal until December 1902, whereupon it came under the editorship of historian Joseph Kla ...

'', ''Ha-Goren'', ''Ha-Pisgah'', and ''Ha-Tikvah''.

Biography

Weissberg was born in the town of Polonki,

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

. He received his preliminary training in various '' ḥadarim'', and then attended the

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

Slonim Slonim is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slonim District. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa (river), Isa rivers, southeast of Grodno. As of 2025, it has a population of ...

, where he came to be regarded as one of the best

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 ...

ic students. Later he went to

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, where he became acquainted with various Hebrew scholars 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 ...

, especially with Joseph Brill (also known as Iyov of Minsk). While in Minsk, Weissberg devoted himself particularly to the study of

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews, mostly among the Arab cit ...

. In 1873 he established himself as a teacher of Hebrew in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

; many of his pupils became prominent Hebrew writers. He made his literary debut in 1879 with the publication of a series of pedagogical articles in ''

''. His more important works include ''Ga'on ve-shibro'', a scholarly criticism of medieval and modern literature; ''She'elat ha-nashim 'al pi ha-Talmud'' (also published in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

), a work treating of the

status of women Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

according to the Talmud, as well as of the prevailing opinion regarding the authority of the Talmud; ''Peshuto shel Mikra 'al pi da'at'' (St. Petersburg, 1898), Talmudic explanations of Biblical passages; and ''Mishle kadmonim'' (Nezhin, 1901), a collection of ancient proverbs. He was the author also of exegetic notes on the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

(published by Ezekiel Mandelstamm); and he collected and published letters by the poet J. L. Gordon, Isaac Bär Levinsohn, and . As a writer of the "old school," Weissberg defended the "purity" of the Hebrew language. He regarded negatively the desire of younger literati to broaden the language by the formation of new words and terms, and the influence of European

literary movements Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by literary genre, genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide languag ...

in Hebrew literature. He died in

in July 1904.

Partial bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * First published as

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissberg, Isaac Jacob 1841 births 1904 deaths 19th-century Belarusian writers 19th-century educators from the Russian Empire 19th-century Jewish biblical scholars Belarusian educators Belarusian Jews Belarusian male writers Jewish educators Hebrew-language writers Literary critics from the Russian Empire People from Minsk Governorate People of the Haskalah Yiddish-language writers