Suedfeld, Gabriel
SUEDFELD, GABRIEL
SUEDFELD, GABRIEL (1799–1872), private scholar, tutor, Hebrew writer; father of Max *Nordau. Born in Krotoszyn, he studied at the Lissa Yeshivah; although ordained, he never practiced as a rabbi. He became a follower of the Haskalah and published in the journal *Bikkurei ha-Ittim, yet he remained strictly religious. After studying at the universities of Berlin and Breslau, he was a tutor in the households of *S.J. Rapoport in Prague, Rabbi M. *Schreiber (Sofer) in Pressburg, and the Fischhof family in Buda. Suedfeld eventually settled in Pest, where he earned a meager living teaching Hebrew and German. A master of the three classical languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, Suedfeld also knew German, French, and Italian. He wrote philosophical and linguistic studies in Hebrew, as well as poetry, both original and translations, and miscellaneous prose in German. His Hebrew writings include Aḥuzzat Mere'im (1825), and Reḥovot ha-Be'ur (1850), a German translation of Ecclesiastes, with Hebrew commentary.
bibliography:
M. Nordau, in: Kol Kitvei Re'uven Brainin, 2 (1936), 57–58. add. bibliography: M. Nordau, in: Eine Gartenstadt fuer Palaestina. Zum 70. Geburtstag v. M. Nordau (1920), 21–22; idem, Erinnerungen (1928), 10; S. Bettelheim, Zurueck zur Bibel! (1922), 145–49.
[Gedalyah Elkoshi /
Archiv Bibliographia Judaica (2nd ed.)]