TUGENDHOLD, JACOB

TUGENDHOLD, JACOB (1794–1871), author and an early adherent of the Galician *Haskalah. He was born near Cracow, Poland and graduated from the University of Breslau. In 1819 he founded a model school in Warsaw, which aroused the antagonism of the Orthodox teachers, and a year later was appointed governmental vice censor of Hebrew books. He served as head of the governmental rabbinical seminary in Warsaw during its last years (1856–63). An author of many Polish books and pamphlets aimed at improving the lives of the Polish Jews, he also defended Judaism from hostile attacks.

Among his books are Jerobaał (Pol. 1831), and the leaflet Koshet Imrei Emet ve-Shalom (1844), on the attitude of Judaism toward people of other faiths. Tugendhold also wrote a Polish-Hebrew catechism titled Ben-Yakkir (1834) and translated into Polish Beḥinat Olam (1846) by *Jedaiah ha-Penini, Vindiciae Judaeorum (1831) by *Manasseh Ben Israel, in defense of the Jews against the blood libel, M. *Mendelssohn's Phaedon (1842), and other books.

[Yehuda Slutsky]

His younger brother wolf tugendhold (1796–1864), born in Vilna, was an educator and author. In 1827 he was appointed government censor of Hebrew books at Vilna, using his office with particular severity against ḥasidic writings. His relations with the Vilna circle of maskilim were tenuous, as he advocated a germanizing Haskalah and had little interest in Hebrew culture. He also taught history at the rabbinical seminary in Vilna. His published works include Der Denunziant (1833; Heb. tr. by M.M. Bendetsohn, Hamoser…, 1847), a story of Jewish life in Poland; and Der Mensch im Ebenbild Gottes (1830).

bibliography:

J. Nirnstein (ed.), Proverbia Salomonis: Przysłowia Salomona (1895), 1–7 (list of his works); J.L. Landau, Short Lectures on Hebrew Literature (1938²), 125, 133; J. Shatzky, Geshikhte fun Yidn in Varshe (1947–53), index to each volume; A. Levinson, Toledot Yehudei Varshah (1953), 117–8; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 10; B. Weinryb, in: mswj, 77 (1933), 280ff.