SCHOENHACK, JOSEPH

SCHOENHACK, JOSEPH (1812–1870), Hebrew writer and lexicographer. Born in Tiktin, Poland, he wrote one of the first works on natural science in Hebrew – Toledot ha-Areẓ, in three volumes (Toledot ha-Ḥayyim (1841, with commendatory prefaces by rabbis and maskilim), Toledot ha-Ẓemaḥim, and Toledot ha-Muẓakim (both 1859), treating, respectively, zoology, botany, and mineralogy. The books were schematically presented – the names of the animals, plants, and minerals appeared in Hebrew with a German translation (in Hebrew letters); the text was augmented by many footnotes that examined the names of species mentioned in the Bible and in talmudic literature. He used a German name only when no Hebrew name was available. With the help of Schoenhack, Mendele Mokher Seforim determined the names of animals in his book Toledot ha-Teva. Schoenhack also compiled a dictionary, Ha-Mashbir he-Ḥadash, for the language of the Targum, the Talmud, and the Midrash (1859) based on the Arukh by nathan of Rome, but he noted the origin of each word and translated it into German (in Hebrew letters). In 1869 he added to Ha-Mashbir a book called Sefer ha-Millu'im, in which he added words not printed in the Arukh. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Klausner, Sifrut, 4 (1954), 133; Ha-Maggid, 49 (1870), 388. (Yehuda Slutsky)