Samuel Joseph Fuenn (; 15 October 1818 – 11 January 1891), also known as Rashi Fuenn () and Rashif (), was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

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, scholar, printer, and editor. He was a leading figure of the

eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

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 ...

, and an early member of Ḥovevei Zion.

Biography

Fuenn was born in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, the son of

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

and Torah scholar Yitsḥak Aizik Fuenn of

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

. Though he received a traditional

religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to t ...

until the age of 17, he also acquired an extensive general knowledge of

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

and other secular subjects, and became proficient in

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 ...

, French,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, Polish, and English. He afterwards joined Vilna's circle of young '' maskilim''. In 1848 the government appointed him teacher of

and

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

in the newly founded rabbinical school of Vilna. Fuenn filled this position with great distinction till 1856, when he resigned. The government then appointed him superintendent of the Jewish public schools in the district of Vilna, in which he introduced instruction in secular studies and

modern language A modern language is any human language that is currently in use as a native language. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead clas ...

s. Since Fuenn (Russian финѣ) was employed in the Russian civil service, there was a special feature for him as a Jew, he had to legally sign in Russian according to the applicable Russian laws. Excerpt from the text of the law § 6 The ''Jew of the Russian Empire in translation: "The use of the Jewish language is not permitted in legal transactions. However, Hebrew home wills are permissible. If a Jew who does not speak any language other than Jewish, a document written or signed in Hebrew must be accompanied by a translation and the signature duly notarized''. He was a prolific writer, devoting his activity mainly to the fields of history and literature. With Eliezer Lipman Hurwitz he edited the short-lived Hebrew periodical ''Pirḥe tzafon'' ('Northern Flowers', 1841–43), a review of history, literature, and exegesis. For twenty-one years (1860–81), he directed the paper '' Ha-Karmel'' ('The Carmel'; at first a weekly, but from 1871 a monthly), devoted to

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 ...

and Jewish life, with supplements in Russian and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. The paper contained many academic articles by the leading Jewish scholars of Europe, besides numerous contributions from Fuenn's own pen, including a serialized autobiography entitled ''Dor ve-dorshav''. He opened a new Hebrew

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

in Vilna in 1863. Besides his scholarly work, Fuenn owned some property in Vilna, including a bathhouse on Zarechye Street. He took an active part in the administration of the city and in its charitable institutions, and was for many years an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

. In acknowledgment of his services the government awarded him two medals. He also presided over the third Ḥovevei Zion conference in Vilna, at which he, Samuel Mohilever, and Asher Ginzberg were chosen to direct the affairs of the delegate societies. Fuenn died in Vilna on 11 January 1891. He bequeathed his entire estate to his son, Dr. Benjamin Fuenn, his daughter having converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

some years earlier. After Benjamin's death, Fuenn's extensive library was added to the collection of the .

Personal life

Fuenn was married off by his parents at a young age. His first wife died in 1845 while their daughter was still a baby, and his second wife died in the 1848 cholera pandemic, shortly after giving birth to their son Benjamin. He married a third wife in 1851. His niece was the

Labour Zionist Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the left-wing, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist faction of the historic Jewish ...

politician Manya Shochat.

Work

Publications

* Two lectures (one delivered by the author; the other translated from

). * Chronology of

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

history. * A Russian language textbook. * A history of the Jews and Jewish literature from the

destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kin ...

of the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

to 1170. * A history of the Jews of Vilna, with an introduction by Mattityahu Strashun. * A history of the Jews and their literature, in two volumes (the first dealing with the period extending from the banishment of

Jehoiachin Jeconiah ( meaning "Yahweh has established"; ; ), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin ( ''Yəhoyāḵin'' ; ), was the nineteenth and penultimate king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BC ...

to the death of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

; the second from Alexander's death to the installation of Simon Maccabeus as high priest and prince). * Selected letters of Hebrew stylists from Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut to modern times. * A fictional narrative based on people from the time of the

Geonim ''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in t ...

, translated a German work of the same name by

Lehmann Lehmann is a German surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 75.3% of all bearers of the surname ''Lehmann'' were residents of Germany, 6.6% of the United States, 6.3% of Switzerland, 3.2% of France, 1.7% of Australia and 1.3% of Poland. ...

. * Hebrew translation of

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'J ...

's ''Die Sache Gottes''. * Hebrew adaptation of Lehmann's ''Graf und Jude''. * Russian laws relating to conscription. * A Hebrew translation of a German novel by

Philippson Philippson is a patronymic surname meaning "son of Philipp", coming from the German language given name variant of "Philip (name), Philip", both derived from ''philippos'', of Ancient Greek origin (prefix ''philein'', meaning "to love"; suffix ''h ...

. * A Hungarian village tale by Hurwitz, translated from German into Hebrew. * * Biographies of notable Jews of Crimea and Turkey in the 14th–15th centuries. * Essay on the value and significance of the Hebrew language and literature in the development of culture among

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

. * Hebrew adaptation of Honigmann's ''Die Erbschaft''. * A

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

dictionary giving Russian and German equivalents for the words of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

, and

Midrashim ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

. * Biographical lexicon of notable Jews.

Unpublished work

Fuenn left in manuscript form a treatise on

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

entitled ''Darkhei Hashem'' ('The Paths of God'), written as a response to Alexander McCaul

anti-Jewish Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

work ''The Old Paths''. Other unpublished works included ''Ha-moreh ba-emek'' ('The Teacher in the Valley'), a commentary on

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

' '' Moreh nevukhim''; ''Mishna berurah'' ('Clarified Teaching') and ''Ḥokhmat ḥakhamim'' ('Wisdom of the Sages'), commentaries on the

; ''Ha-Torah veha-zeman'' ('The Torah and Time'), on the evolution of laws and regulations; ''Sum sekhel'', glosses on the Bible; ''Pirḥe Levanon'' ('Flowers of Lebanon'), a collection of verses; and ''Bein ha-perakim'' ('Between the Chapters'), a commentary on '' Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer''.

External links

Works by Fuenn
at the

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuenn, Samuel Joseph 1818 births 1891 deaths 19th-century lexicographers 19th-century Lithuanian writers 19th-century printers 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire Book publishers (people) 19th-century educators from the Russian Empire Hebrew-language writers Hovevei Zion Jewish educators Jewish historians Jewish lexicographers Jewish non-fiction writers Jewish scholars Jewish translators Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Lexicographers from the Russian Empire Literary historians from the Russian Empire Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian lexicographers Lithuanian literary historians Russian magazine editors People from Vilna Governorate People of the Haskalah Translators from German Translators to Hebrew Jewish writers from Vilnius German–Hebrew translators