URI (Phoebus) BEN AARON HA-LEVI
- URI (Phoebus) BEN AARON HA-LEVI
- URI (Phoebus) BEN AARON HA-LEVI (also
called Uri Witzenhausen or Witmund; 1625–1715),
Hebrew printer. Uri's father was ḥazzan of the Neveh Shalom
congregation, Amsterdam, and his grandfather Moses Uri ha-Levi, rabbi of
Emden and one of the founders of the Portuguese Jewish community in
Amsterdam. Uri established his first press in Amsterdam in 1658 and was
active there until 1689. He published numerous rabbinical and religious
works, some of them in Yiddish, including the first Yiddish translation
of the Bible by Jekuthiel Blitz (1679); the Josippon (1661);
and the Bava Bukh (1661) by elijah bahur levita . Uri
also published the first Yiddish newspaper, which appeared every Tuesday
and Friday (Dienstagishe un Freytagishe Kurant 1680–87). The
greater part of the works he printed were for distribution among the
Jews of Poland. In 1692 he moved to zholkva where he was
reportedly invited by the Polish king John Sobieski to print Hebrew
books, which previously were imported from abroad. At the sessions of
the council of the four lands in Jaroslaw in 1697 and 1699, Uri
obtained rabbinical backing against business competitors in Lublin and
Cracow. His press was continued by his children and their descendants
for some time after his death. His descendants include the author and
poet meir ha-levi letteris whose father Gershon was still printing
in Zolkiev in 1828, including those works written by his son.
-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
M. Letteris, Zikkaron ba-Sefer (1848), 12–13; idem, in:
Bikkurim, 1 (1844), 52f.; Steinschneider, Cat Bod, 3061–63;
M. Erik, Di Geshikhte fun der Yidisher Literatur (1928),
232–9; Ḥ.D. Friedberg, Toledot ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Polanyah
(1950), 62–64.
Encyclopedia Judaica.
1971.
Look at other dictionaries:
Uri, Phoebus ben Aaron Levi (Witzenhausen, Joseph) — (1623 1715) Dutch printer. In 1658 he established a press in Amsterdam, which published rabbinical and religious works in Hebrew and Yiddish. He also published the first Yiddish newspaper, Dienstagishe und Freytagishe Kurant, from 1680. In… … Dictionary of Jewish Biography
PRINTING, HEBREW — pre modern period The first mention of Jews in connection with printing is found in Avignon c. 1444 (before Gutenberg) when a Jew, Davin de Caderousse, studied the new craft. The first Hebrew books were printed at least within 35 years after the… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
AMSTERDAM — AMSTERDAM, constitutional capital of the netherlands . Ashkenazim until 1795 DEMOGRAPHY AND ECONOMY The beginning The first Ashkenazim arrived in Amsterdam from the end of the 1610s onwards. They left the German countries owing to the Thirty… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS, HEBREW — This entry is arranged according to the following outline: hebrew illumination in hellenistic times character of hebrew manuscript illumination materials and techniques oriental school spanish illumination french school german school italian… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
LONDON — LONDON, capital of england and seat of what has always been the largest Jewish community in the country. Medieval Period There is no reliable evidence for the presence of Jews in London until after the close of the Saxon period. After the Norman… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
AḤARONIM — (Heb. אַחֲרוֹנִים; lit. the later (authorities), a term used to designate the later rabbinic authorities, in contrast to the rishonim , the earlier authorities. Although scholars differ as to the exact chronological dividing line between the two … Encyclopedia of Judaism
CODIFICATION OF LAW — This article is arranged according to the following outline: the concept and its prevalence in other legal systems in jewish law in the mishnah format and style of the mishnah the talmud and post talmudic halakhic literary forms variety of… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
