Olsvanger, Immanuel

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OLSVANGER, IMMANUEL

OLSVANGER, IMMANUEL (1888–1961), folklorist and Hebrew translator. Born in Poland, he was active in the Zionist movement and was a founder of the student Zionist organization He-Ḥaver. He emigrated to Ereẓ Israel in 1933.

Bein Adam le-Kono, his book of verse, was published in 1943. Olsvanger was among the first to translate Far Eastern literary texts (especially Sanskrit and Japanese) from the original into Hebrew; he also translated poems by Goethe, Dante's Divine Comedy (Ha-Komedyah ha-Elohit, 3 vols., 1944–56) to which he added notes and wrote an introduction, and Boccaccio's Decameron (1947). The two collections of Yiddish proverbs and anecdotes he edited were printed in Latin characters, Rőyte pomerantsen (1947) and L'chayim! (1949).

bibliography:

D. Lazar, Rashim be-Yisrael, 2 (1955), 267–71.

[Getzel Kressel]