HURWITZ, JUDAH BEN MORDECAI HA-LEVI
- HURWITZ, JUDAH BEN MORDECAI HA-LEVI
- HURWITZ, JUDAH BEN MORDECAI HA-LEVI (d. 1797), physician and
Hebrew writer, precursor of the Haskalah in Eastern Europe. Born in
Vilna, Hurwitz studied medicine in Padua and traveled extensively; in
Berlin he made the acquaintance of moses mendelssohn . He
practiced medicine in Vilna, then moved to other towns, and eventually
settled in Grodno. He was well versed in medieval Hebrew literature; at
the same time he had wide secular knowledge and was strongly influenced
by Rousseau. In his works, written in rhymed prose, he calls for the
reform of Jewish life in the spirit of the moderate Haskalah. In his
first work, Ẓel ha-Ma'alot (1764, and other editions), a
collection of 365 epigrams, he advocated the humanistic ideals of the
Haskalah and criticized the social conditions of his time. His most
important book is Ammudei Beit Yehudah (1766), in which he
expounded in the form of a debate, his moral and philosophical beliefs,
identifying religion with morality. The book includes a poem in his
praise by N.Ḥ. Wessely and an introduction by Moses Mendelssohn. His
other works are Kerem Ein Gedi (1764), Megillat
Sedarim (1793, and other editions), Mahberet Ḥayyei ha-Nefesh
ve-Niẓḥiyyutah (1787), and Heikhal Oneg (1798).
-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (19152), 178f; B.
Katz, Rabbanut, Ḥasidut, Haskalah, 2 (1958), 122–8; Z.H.
Rosenthal, in: Ha-Meliẓ, 2 (1862), 208; I. Shatzky,
Kultur-Geschikhte fun der Haskole in Lite (1950), 21–23;
Zinberg, Sifrut, 3 (1958), 310–4, 367.
(Gedalyah Elkoshi)
Encyclopedia Judaica.
1971.
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