Falkowitsch, Joel Baerisch

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FALKOWITSCH, JOEL BAERISCH

FALKOWITSCH, JOEL BAERISCH (19th century), Hebrew and Yiddish essayist. Falkowitsch was born in Dubno and lived in Odessa. In addition to a free Hebrew translation of Lessing's Philotas under the title Amminadav (1868), he published two successfully produced plays in Yiddish: Reb Khayml der Kotsin ("Reb Khayml the Judge," 1866) and Rokhele di Zingerin ("Rokhele the Singer," 1868). Although baptized a few years before his death, he remained well disposed to Judaism. Falkowitsch appeared at blood-libel trials where he argued against the antisemitic charges. When anti-Jewish attacks appeared in the Warsaw Russian newspaper, Varshavsky Dnevnik, he wrote a defense in German, called Wort zur Zeit ("A Timely Word," Hebrew transl. "Davar be-Itto" in the weekly Ha-Kol (1877), 8–21).

bibliography:

Ha-Boker-Or, 4 (1879), 844; S. Wiener, Kohelet Moshe (1893–1936), 3 no. 25; Zeitlin, Bibliotheca, 81, 467; Rejzen, Leksikon, 3 (1929), 13–16.

[Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann /

Marc Miller (2nd ed.)]