SLUTZKI, DAVID

SLUTZKI, DAVID (d. 1889), publisher and businessman in his native Warsaw. Slutzki spent some time in St. Petersburg, where he befriended J.L. Gordon\>\> , and moved to Hamburg, living there in great poverty. He was familiar with Jewish literature of all periods, particularly philosophic and meditative literature, and sought to publish new editions for the masses in a modern format with biographical introductions and notes. Accordingly, he published a proclamation at the beginning of the 1860s calling for a comprehensive edition of all the works of the Oral Law and the literature of the Middle Ages. From 1863 to 1871 he published the following works in Warsaw: Ḥokhmat Yisrael, a series of works containing comprehensive introductions, prefaces, biographies of the authors, etc., as well as Jedaiah ha-Penini's Beḥinat Olam (1864); Solomon ibn Gabirol's Mivḥar ha-Peninim (1864); Maimonides' Shemonah Perakim (1864) and Be'ur Millot ha-Higgayon (1865); Saadiah Gaon's Emunot ve-De'ot (1864); Judah ibn Tibbon's Ru'aḥ Ḥen (1865); Judah Halevi's Kuzari (1866); and Baḥya ibn Paquda's Ḥovot ha-Levavot (1870). In addition, he published new editions of Manasseh of Ilya's Sefer Alfei Menasheh (Warsaw, 1860), Megillat Antiyyokhus (1863), and S. Pappenheim's Arba Kosot (1863). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ha-Meliẓ (1889), no. 256; Ha-Ẓefirah (1889), no. 265; A. Yaari, in: Moznayim, 3:27 (1932). (Getzel Kressel)