Lichtenfeld, Gabriel Judah

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LICHTENFELD, GABRIEL JUDAH

LICHTENFELD, GABRIEL JUDAH (1811–1887), Hebrew author and mathematician. Born in Lublin, he lived most of his life in Opatow, Poland. Having taught himself sciences and European languages, he wrote for Ha-Shaḥar, Ha-Ẓefirah, Izraelita, and Polish newspapers, mostly on mathematical topics. In 1865 he published Yedi'ot ha-Shi'urim ("Science of Measurement"), by which a reader might "learn the elements of surveying, without the aid of a teacher." In 1874–75 he published polemic tracts against Ḥ.S. *Slonimski, questioning the latter's competence in scientific matters. With I.L. *Peretz, whose first wife was Lichtenfeld's daughter, he co-edited Sippurim be-Shir ve-Shirim Shonim me'et Shenei Ba'alei Asufot ("Stories in Verse and Sundry Poems From Two Anthologists," Warsaw, 1877), incorporating a long original poem by the editors called Ḥayyei Meshorer Ivri ("Life of a Hebrew Poet"). Lichtenfeld's book on mathematics, Bo'u Ḥeshbon, was published posthumously (1895). Some of the terminology which he coined has been generally accepted.

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 980; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 266–7.

[Yehuda Slutsky]

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