Jacob Moiseyovych Eichenbaum (, uk, Я́ків Мойсе́йович Ейхенба́ум; 12 October 1796 – 27 December 1861), born Jacob Gelber, was a Galician Jewish

maskil The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western E ...

, educator, poet and mathematician.

Biography

Jacob Gelber was born in the Galician city of Krystynopil, on 12 October 1796, in the year following the Third Partition of Poland by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. By the age of eleven, he was already in his first marriage, but it didn't last long until the divorce, as his father-in-law suspected that he was a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...

. In 1815, when he was eighteen, he remarried, adopted the name "Eichenbaum" and settled in

Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...

. There he encountered a progressive Jewish youth circle, and began studying

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, German, philosophy, and (in particular) mathematics. In 1819 he translated

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...

's ''

Elements Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of ...

'' from German into Hebrew. He worked as a travelling private tutor, teaching Hebrew subjects and mathematics in wealthy households throughout Ukraine. In 1835, Eichenbaum opened a private school for Jewish children in

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern sho ...

, which had become an important educational centre for Ukrainian Jews. In 1836, he published ''Kol Zimrah'', one of the first books of

Modern Hebrew poetry Modern Hebrew poetry is poetry written in the Hebrew language. It was pioneered by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and it was developed by the Haskalah movements, that saw poetry as the most quality genre for Hebrew writing. The first Haskalah poet, w ...

published in the

Haskalah The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Eu ...

period. In 1840 he published ''Ha-Kerav,'' a poetry book describing a variety of

chess moves ''Chess Moves'' is a 1985 music video compilation for the musical '' Chess'' directed by David G. Hillier. Overview ''Chess Moves'' features five music videos of songs from the original ''Chess'' concept album. ''Chess'' lyricist Tim Rice prov ...

in verse. Eichenbaum's educational and literary work attracted the attention of the Russian government, which advanced his position in the Jewish education system of the Russian Empire. In 1844, Eichenbaum was appointed as director of the Bessarabian Jewish school in Chișinău, and in 1850, he was appointed as chief inspector of a

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; 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 stu ...

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...

, a position which he maintained until his death. During his final years, he continued to publish works of mathematics and poetry. In 1857, he published a Hebrew arithmetic textbook, ''Ḥokhmat ha-Shi'urim,'' which he had adapted from a work in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

. In 1861, he wrote an allegorical poem, ''Ha-Kosem,'' which he published in the Hebrew newspaper ''

Ha-Melitz ''Ha-Melitz'' or ''HaMelitz'' (Hebrew: ) was the first Hebrew newspaper in the Russian Empire. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum in Odessa in 1860. History ''Ha-Melitz'' first appeared as a weekly, and it began to appear daily in 1886. From 1 ...

''. On 27 December 1861, Jacob Eichenbaum died in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eichenbaum, Jacob 1796 births 1861 deaths 19th-century mathematicians from the Russian Empire 19th-century Ukrainian poets Hebrew-language poets Jewish chess players Jewish educators Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Jewish scientists Jewish Ukrainian poets Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Mathematics educators Mathematics writers People from Chervonohrad People from Volhynian Governorate People of the Haskalah Ukrainian chess writers Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian mathematicians Ukrainian schoolteachers