Rabinowitz, Ẓevi Ha-Cohen

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RABINOWITZ, ẒEVI HA-COHEN

RABINOWITZ, ẒEVI HA-COHEN (1832–1889), science popularizer. Born in Linkavo, in the Kaunas district of Lithuania (then Russia), Rabinowitz early showed an inclination for mathematics and physics, and from 1852 began to prepare a comprehensive Hebrew work which was to encompass all the fields of physics, with his own notes.

Because of financial difficulties, he only published one volume, Sefer ha-Menuḥah ve-ha-Tenu'ah (1867). He later wrote other books on mathematics, magnetism, chemistry, and steam engines, thus enriching Hebrew terminology in these fields and bringing them to the attention of Hebrew readers. He also published many articles on these subjects in Ha-Meliẓ, and in Russian in several newspapers and periodicals which he edited and published between the late 1870s and 1885. Even after the pogroms of the 1880s he remained convinced that education was the solution to the Jewish problem in Russia. He died in St. Petersburg.

bibliography:

Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 821; Waxman, Literature, 3 (19602), 331.

[Getzel Kressel]