RIVLIN, ELIEZER

RIVLIN, ELIEZER (1889–1942), historian and journalist in Ereẓ Israel. Rivlin was born in Jerusalem into one of its old established families. He went into business and then became the secretary of the United Old Age Home in Jerusalem. As a young man, he became a correspondent for the New York Yiddish paper, Morning Journal, and also published studies on the history of Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel, Jerusalem in particular, and in neighboring countries. In this field, Rivlin's major achievement was his revised and enlarged edition of Aryeh Leib Frumkin's Toledot Ḥakhmei Yerushalayim 1490–1870 ("History of Jerusalem Sages, 1490–1870," 3 vols., 1928–30), which he expanded into a history of all Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel. Rivlin also published selections from the Pentateuch commentary by the 16th-century Jerusalem rabbi and physician Raphael Mordecai Malkhi, Likkutim mi-Perush ha-Torah shel R.M. Malkhi (2 parts, 1923–24); a biography of joseph sundel salant (Heb., 1927); a new edition of the 17th-century work on Jerusalem, Ḥorvot Yerushalayim (1928); and Sefer ha-Yaḥas le-Mishpaḥat Rivlin u-Mishpaḥat ha-Gra mi-Vilna (1935–40; "Genealogy of the Rivlin family and the family of Elijah of Vilna"). His collection of material on Ereẓ Israel in the responsa literature remained unpublished. (Getzel Kressel)