Ben-Yehuda, Ḥemdah

views updated

BEN-YEHUDA, ḤEMDAH

BEN-YEHUDA, ḤEMDAH (1873–1951), Hebrew author; wife of Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda. Her sister Deborah was Ben-Yehuda's first wife. After she died, Ḥemdah went to Jerusalem from Lithuania and married Ben-Yehuda in 1892. She aided her husband in his literary work, wrote articles and stories for his papers, and after his death in 1922 concerned herself with the continued publication of his multi-volume dictionary. Her two main works were Ben Yehuda, Ḥayyav u-Mifalo (1940), a life of Ben Yehuda, and Nose ha-Degel (1944) on her stepson Ithamar *Ben-Avi.

bibliography:

J. Harari, Ishah va-Em be-Yisrael (1959) 273–7.

[Getzel Kressel]