Leaf (Lifshitz), Hayim

views updated

LEAF (Lifshitz), HAYIM

LEAF (Lifshitz ), HAYIM (1914– ), educator, editor, essayist. Born in Russia, he went to the U.S. at an early age. He taught Hebrew literature first at the Herzliah Academy of New York and, from 1943, at Yeshiva University. He edited Niv, a Hebrew periodical for younger Hebrew writers (1937–40); the Hadoar supplement for young readers (1945–59); and the Hebrew column of the Yiddish daily The Day (1950–51). From 1961 he was associate editor of the Hebrew monthly Bitzaron. His articles on contemporary Jewish problems and essays on Hebrew literature appeared in Hebrew periodicals in the U.S. and Israel. In 1957 he began co-editing with Naomi Ben-Asher the one-volume Junior Jewish Encyclopedia; their 14th revised edition was published in 1996. He also co-edited with Moshe Carmilly The Samuel Belkin Memorial Volume (1981) of essays on topics in Jewish history, philosophy, and literature. In 1976 Leaf received the Yeshiva College Alumni Association's Bernard Revel Memorial Award in Religion and Religious Education.

[Eisig Silberschlag /

Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]