Avrunin, Abraham

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AVRUNIN, ABRAHAM

AVRUNIN, ABRAHAM (1869–1957), Hebrew philologist and grammarian. Born in Russia, he joined the Ḥibbat Zion movement there and became an ardent Zionist. From 1898 he taught Hebrew in Minsk and devoted himself to the study of Hebrew philology. In 1910 Avrunin settled in Ereẓ Israel, where he taught in public schools in Tel Aviv and at the college for kindergarten teachers founded by Yeḥiel *Halperin who had been one of Avrunin's students in his youth. Avrunin fought for the use of pure and correct Hebrew and reintroduced archaic idioms. He wrote etymological and linguistic studies, poems and epigrams, a Hebrew grammar Netivot ha-Dikduk (together with A. Pepper, 1922), edited the linguistic column of the newspaper Ha'aretz, and was coeditor of the periodical of Va'ad ha-Lashon, Leshonenu la-Am (see *Academy of the Hebrew Language). His works include a commentary on the Book of Job (with A.Z. Rabinowitz, 1916); a study on Hebrew medieval poetry (1929); philological studies on Bialik and Y.L. Gordon (1943); and an edition of Judah Al-Ḥarizi's Sefer ha-Anak with an introduction and notes (1945).

bibliography:

Moznayim, 28 (1957), 60 ff.; D. Sadan, in: Leshonenu la-Am, 7 (1957), 223–7; M. Shamir, Be-Kulmos Mahir (1960), 356–60.