the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Tugendhold, Jacob
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Russian educator and author; born in Breslau 1791; died at Warsaw April 20, 1871. Realizing that education was one of the best means for improving the condition of the Jews in Poland and Lithuania, he founded at Warsaw in 1819 a school for Jewish children, where the instruction was given according to the most modern principles of pedagogy and was not limited to purely Jewish subjects. In carrying out this plan Tugendhold had to overcome many obstacles which the conservative "melammedim" put in his way. In 1820 he was appointed by the Russian government censor of all the Jewish publications that appeared in Warsaw; and when the rabbinical school was established in that city, in 1853, Tugendhold was made director of the institution, which post he held until the school was closed in 1862.
Tugendhold was active not only as an educator but also as a communal worker. It was due to him that the Warsaw Home for Aged and Invalid Jews was built; and he was instrumental also in establishing a number of other benevolent institutions in that city. For a number of years he served as president of the Warsaw ḳahal.
Tugendhold's literary works include the following: "Book of Errors" (in Polish, Warsaw, 1830), a work, written with the assistance of Dr. Stern, which points out more than 900 errors in L. Chiarini'swork on the Hebrew language; an answer to the work "Sposob na Zydow" (ib. 1831); "Obrana Izraelitow" (ib. 1831), a translation into Polish of Manasseh ben Israel's "Vindiciæ Judæorum," a defense against the blood accusation; "Fedon," a translation of Moses Mendelssohn's "Phädon"; "Ben Yaḳḳir" (ib. 1824), a text-book on the fundamental principles of the Jewish faith; "Pierwsza Wskrzeszona Mysl o Jstniemu Boga" (ib. 1840), a translation into Polish of Solomon Cohen's poem "Haẓẓalat Abram me-Ur Kasdim"; "Ḳoshṭ Imre Emet we-Shalom" (Polish title, "Wskasawki Prawdy"; ib. 1844), a collection of passages from ancient and modern Jewish writings, showing Judaism in its relation to other religions; "Beḥinat 'Olam," a translation of Bedersi's work on the vanity and instability of all that is worldly.
Tugendhold wrote also "Marnot" (ib. 1851), a drama in three parts, and contributed extensively to many Polish and German periodicals of his time.
- Zeitlin, in Maggid Mishneh, 1872, pp. 59-61;
- idem, Bibl. Post-Mendels. p. 400;
- Den, 1872, No. 21.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Tugendhold, Jacob'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/t/tugendhold-jacob.html. 1901.
