Braslavi (Braslavski), Joseph

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BRASLAVI (Braslavski), JOSEPH

BRASLAVI (Braslavski), JOSEPH (1896–1972), Israeli geographer and author. Braslavi went to Ereẓ Israel from the Ukraine as a boy of ten. During World War i he was an interpreter in the Turkish army. In the early 1920s he taught Hebrew in various kibbutzim. In 1924 he was sent on an exploratory journey to Transjordan and the Negev in connection with the projected settlement of *Ha-Shomer, the Jewish watchmen's organization, in these areas. He went to Berlin to study Semitics in 1927. On his return he resumed his explorations and his lectures on the geography of the country. From 1938 he taught at the Teachers' Seminary in Tel Aviv. Braslavi's most important work is his six-volume Ha-Yadata et ha-Areẓ? ("Do You Know the Land?" 1940–65), a detailed description of all the regions of Israel. Other books include: Milḥamah ve-Hitgonenut shel Yehudei Ereẓ Yisrael me-aḥar Mered Bar-Kokhva ve-ad Massa ha-Ẓelav ha-Rishon (1943); Le-Ḥeker Arẓenu (1954); and Me-Reẓu'at Azzah ad Yam Suf (1956).

bibliography:

Tidhar, 3 (19582, 1233–35.

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