Ephraim Deinard Bookman, historian and polemicist (1846-1930)

Hebrew Writings and Publications from the Library of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion

90 titles including:

§ Hebrew imprints from , Austro- Hungary, Ottoman Palestine and America

§ Polemics on sectarian movements (Karaism, Hasidism, Russian Subbotniki)

§ Historical writings on East European and American Jewry, , and Eretz Israel

§ Rare broadsheets, journals and texts

§ Bibliographic literature and Hebrew printing history

Advisor: Brad Sabin Hill, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, USA

Also available in IDC Digital Library www.idc-digilib.nl

Ephraim Deinard, bookman, historian and polemicist (1846-1930) The Hebrew publications of Ephraim Deinard comprise a trove of historical and bibliographic material relating to Russian, Palestinian, and American , Crimean and Karaite studies, anti-Hasidic polemic, modern , and antiquarian Hebrew booklore. Scattered in libraries around the world, these works – some of which are excessively rare – are all made accessible in this unique IDC collection.

Bookseller, bibliographer, publicist, Palestine, a critique of British policy, polemicist, historian, and memoirist, and a critical biography of the Anglo- Latvian-born Ephraim Deinard (1846- Jewish Maecenas and proto-Zionist Sir 1930) was one of the greatest Hebrew (complementing the bookmen of all time, and played a extensive panegyric literature on this significant role in the building of nearly figure). While living in Palestine before every major Hebraica research collection the end of Ottoman rule, Deinard in America early in the 20th century. As published texts and documents from a prolific author, editor, and publisher, manuscripts and old printed books, Deinard produced some 70 volumes among them an account of anti-Jewish whose subjects range from Jewish riots in Ancona, Italy, in the late 18th history and antiquities (especially of the century. He also published S. Raffaeli’s , Russia, America, and the Holy illustrated survey of ancient Hebrew Land), to treatises against Hasidism, coins, the first Hebrew book on this , and Communism, parodies, subject. medieval and modern Hebrew literature, Jewish religion, and especially booklore. Polemics and Parodies His writings are a treasure-trove for the Deinard is remembered today as both a student of Hebrew bibliography. bookman and a prolific polemicist, two careers inextricably linked in his Deinard’s antiquarian activities, which singular personality. Indeed, his works involved constant travel throughout M. N. Litinski, Kuki riki [satirical poems], ed. are devoted in large part to religious, Europe, the Orient, and America, gave E. Deinard (, 1883). political, and even bibliographical him a unique acquaintance with polemics. He attacked Hasidism and scholars, private collectors, fellow compiling lists of ancient manuscripts, Christianity in equal measure, with bookdealers, and libraries. A passionate later sold to the Imperial Museum in plenty of bile left over for Communism, Hebraist and Zionist, Deinard observed St. Petersburg, relating to Karaite origins , , Jewish and participated in Jewish national in the Russian lands. His first apostates, and Karaism. Deinard activities on three continents, and came monographs deal with the life of reissued several early anti-Hasidic into contact and conflict with numerous Firkovich, the history of Crimean , works, including two tracts of diverse Hebrew writers and Jewish communal Krimchaks and Karaites, the Crimean authorship entitled Zemir ‘Aritsim, as and political figures. His wide-ranging War, and Crimean antiquities. His well as his own Hebrew translation of knowledge and experience are fully broader interest in Russian Jewish Israel Löbel’s German diatribe. He reflected in his own voluminous history, its religious sects (including the edited another polemical text preserved writings, mostly in Hebrew, produced Judaizing Subbotniki of the Caucasus) in a Bodleian manuscript (one of several over more than half a century. His scope and its proto-Zionists, is reflected in Oxford manuscripts edited by Deinard), of interests, the intensity of his several works, not least in his volumes and printed a previously unpublished sentiments, the acerbity of his remarks, of memoirs. anti-Hasidic work by the Russian maskil all coupled with his bibliophily, render I. B. Levinsohn. It is noteworthy that all Deinard’s works a fascinating – if Deinard devoted a number of books to of these works are bibliographically eccentric – source of contemporary Palestine, Zionism, and related subjects, complex in their authorship or Jewish historical and literary especially the Jewish national movement publication history, and Deinard’s controversy, as seen in the margins of in Russia, Europe, and America. His editions have been the most accessible. the Hebrew-reading world, before and narratives of trips to Palestine, , after World War I. , and every corner of Europe, focus After Hasidism, Deinard’s biggest on contemporary Jewish communities bugaboo was Christianity. Over the The Crimea and Russia, Palestine, and their political affairs. (An course of 40 years, he published seven and Zionism approbation by Deinard, penned during volumes of anti-Christian polemics, Much of Deinard’s writing, including one of his European tours, appears in a beginning with his first book in his travelogues, his Zionist works and book of oriental homilies printed in America, an edition of medieval Judeo- his religious polemics, were rooted in Livorno.) Some of his earliest books, Christian disputations. He later reissued his interest in history and antiquities. In which were published in Pressburg, Crescas’ 14th-century refutation of his youth, which was spent at Chufut- Austro-Hungary, before his emigration Christian beliefs, though his Kale in the Crimea, Deinard assisted the to America in 1888, deal with Jewish accompanying edition of an 18th-century Karaite scholar A. Firkovich in colonization. Some of his last books anti-Christian polemic by David Nassy include an account of Turkish rule in of Surinam was destroyed by fire. Hebrew Literature, Journalism, and to the famous English libraries in Yiddish Oxford, Cambridge, and London. Devoted to many periods and genres of Hebrew literature, Deinard published, Deinard’s broad interest and expertise in aside from new or revised editions of is evident in his early polemical tracts, various medieval bibliographical writings and antiquarian and modern Hebrew texts, works by catalogs. His most important American Hebrew authors, and sharp bibliographic works are various studies critiques of modern Hebrew writing, and annotated lists of American Hebrew including an attack on “Bolshevism” in literature, especially the two-volume literature. (His engagement with Kohelet Amerika, which records books American Hebrew writing of the fin-de- issued from 1735 to 1926. He was the siècle is also reflected in several book- first to devote attention to Hebrew books length attacks on Deinard by his printed overseas by American authors. contemporary polemicist N.S. He also dealt with early Hebrew Libowitz.) Involved in Hebrew printing, recording post-incunabula, journalism since his youth, Deinard especially Italian, in ‘Atikot Yehudah, made several brief attempts to publish and he wrote about the history of his own journals, including one of the Hebrew bibliography and of Hebrew first Hebrew papers in America, and a printing, especially in Eastern Europe. Zionist Yiddish paper at Newark, New The prospectus of Deinard’s last library, Jersey, of which no copy survives. subsequently acquired by Harvard, also Deinard did not neglect Yiddish, and in contains a listing of ceremonial Judaica his Odessa period published both which passed to the Smithsonian. E. Deinard, Masa Krim [Crimean Karaite and Hebrew and Yiddish works by the Jewish history] (, 1878). Podolian-born historian and belletrist M. N. Litinsky. Some Yiddish texts appear Deinard wrote several attacks on the in his Hebrew books, and he deals with Jewish biography of by J. Yiddish in his catalogs and Klausner (uncle of Israeli author Amos bibliographies. One of his last books, Oz), and his last printed book, A Zoo Devir Efrayim, which was published just Without an Animal, questioned the after the founding of the Yiddish existence of Jesus. Several of his books Scientific Institute in 1925, contains a contain essays directed against Jewish chapter on Yiddish. converts to Christianity, among them the ill-fated antiquarian M.W. Shapira, who Bibliography and Booklore attempted to sell ancient Biblical It is in the field of Hebrew booklore that fragments of questionable authenticity to Deinard made his greatest contribution the . to scholarship. After working on Karaite manuscripts in the Crimea, Deinard Deinard’s concerns were eclectic. Aside spent some years as an antiquarian and from his editions of medieval and post- publisher in Odessa, where he issued his medieval Hebrew texts, mostly own dealer’s lists. His bibliographic polemics, he wrote treatises on the work in America began with a catalogue rabbinic prohibition of etrogim from - from which his polemical introduction, Greece (especially Corfu), and on the already set in type, was expunged! - of modern attempt to reestablish the the Sulzberger collection of Hebrew ancient Sanhedrin. His two-volume books and manuscripts in Philadelphia. Alatah, which is of bibliographic (The collection went to the Jewish E. Deinard, Le-korot ha-yehudim be-Amerika interest, attemp ts to show the to Theological Seminary in New York.) He [American Jewish history] (, 1925). be a forgery, and that Beshtian Hasidism also prepared a catalog, never published, is Catholicism in disguise. Deinard’s of Hebrew manuscripts acquired by the Deinard and Hebrew Printing particular literary genius and satirical California magnate A. Sutro from M.W. Deinard was interested in the history and gifts are displayed in his Kundes Shapira’s stock. (The spread of Hebrew printing and (“Prankster”) and Ployderzak collection, also catalogued by the contributed to its development. His (“Chatterbox”), written in the tradition wandering Hebraist S. Rubin, remained books were printed in eleven towns in and style of earlier maskilic or anti- in San Francisco.) Through his travels, Europe, Ottoman Palestine, and Hasidic parodies. The latter, with its Deinard managed to assemble whole America, including Odessa, Warsaw, Yiddish title, mocks the flawed Jewish libraries of books and manuscripts, later Pressburg (), , New journalism of his day. These works are described in sale catalogs and marketed York, Newark, Kearny, , Jerusalem, among the earliest of a whole genre of to research institutions. He founded the Arlington, and St. Louis. Deinard was Hebrew parodies written in America great Hebrew collections in New York the most prolific Hebrew author- shortly before and after 1900. and , at the Library of publisher in . He founded the Congress, at Harvard, Berkeley, and presses in Newark and elsewhere, and he also sold manuscripts Kearny/Arlington, which in his most productive year were operated in his Montefiore, is an oversize folio on gold The Hebrew Union College Collection home. At the end of his career, Deinard paper. The narrow miniature Zemir Surviving copies of Deinard’s many had sixteen volumes printed at the ‘Aritsim on colored papers is known as works are scattered in Hebrew research Moinester Press in St. Louis, more than one of the great oddities of Hebrew libraries around the globe; no library he had printed in any other town. This booklore. Some books are enhanced holds a complete set, and some of his press catered almost exclusively to with illustrative plates or other books are excessively rare. The largest émigré rabbinic authors from Eastern reproductions or fold-out leaves. The collections are held at the Hebrew Union Europe, and Deinard’s works stand out Kundes, another octavo on multicolored College libraries in Cincinnati and Los for their secular subject matter, among papers, contains cartoons taken from Angeles, the in them the first Hebrew book on local Goldfaden’s first illustrated Yiddish Washington, the Jewish Theological American Jewish history. Of the books periodical. A few volumes make use of Seminary in New York, and Harvard printed in St. Louis, some were unusual or complex typography. College Library. The Deinard collection “published” in New Orleans, a Hebraist reproduced here, drawn from one of the center where he spent his last twelve Following a long tradition of false and oldest and largest Hebrew academic years. (A further work, in preparation for fictional imprints in Hebrew publishing, libraries in the world the Library of the publication at his death, never especially in Eastern Europe, one of his Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute appeared.) books bears the imprint “Sodom” and of Religion (with a few additional another “Boltunovka” (“Chatter-town”), rarities from the Seminary, YIVO, and A number of Deinard’s books are although in fact both were printed in the private Valmadonna Trust), includes bibliophilic curiosities; several were Newark. A third rarity, on colored books, pamphlets, journalistic pieces, printed in limited editions of 50 or 100 papers, bears the imprint “Tsevu‘im” and other ephemera from his press. To copies, some have survived in only a (“the painted capital of hypocrites”), “at these have been added the detailed handful of copies, and one was said to the press of the Angel Raziel”. biographical dissertation by S. survive in only a single copy. Reviving Deinard’s eccentric and combative Berkowitz and some other studies on an old tradition in Hebrew printing, five personality is reflected in another this unique literary figure – one of the of his books were printed on colored textual-bibliographic idiosyncrasy: he is most colorful characters in the history of papers (blue, red, yellow, green, and known to have printed special copies for Hebrew scholarship in America. gold), two of them using a variety of specific individuals, with variant texts these papers, and one using red ink. depending on the intended recipient, Some of his books are unusual in their some copies differing considerably from Brad Sabin Hill dimensions: several are very small each other. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York octavos, and one work, appropriate to

E. Deinard, Ha-Ya'ar be-ein dov [anti- S. Raffaeli, Matbe'ot ha-yehudim [Coins of E. Deinard, Kohelet Amerika Christian polemic] (St. Louis, 1929). the Jews], ed. E. Deinard (Jerusalem, 1913)]. [bibliography] (St. Louis, 1926).

Cover illustration from: E. Deinard, Ha-Kundes [parody] (Sodom [i.e. Newark, New Jersey], 1890).

Bibliography Product information

Berkowitz, S. Ephraim Deinard (1846- General 1930): A Transitional Figure, M.A. thesis, Scope 90 titles Columbia University, New York, 1964. External Bibliographic records for all titles ordered are supplied ___. ‘Ephraim Deinard: Bibliophile and finding aids in AACR2/MARC21 format Bookman’, in Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 9 (Cincinnati, 1971). Prices For price information, please visit www.idc.nl ___. ‘Ephraim Deinard: A Portrait’, in Jewish Book Annual 37 (1979-1980).

Online ___. ‘Deinard's “Or Mayer” Catalogue’, in Images available in IDC Digital Library www.idc-digilib.nl Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 21 (Cincinnati, 2001). Microfiche Number of fiche 154 Grossman, G. ‘The Ephraim Deinard

Collection’, in her Judaica at the Size of fiche 105 x 148 mm. Smithsonian (Washington, 1997). Film type Positive silver halide Hill, B.S. ‘Ephraim Deinard and the Shapira Reduction ratio Varies depending on the size of the original Affair’, in The Book Collector (London,

Internal Eye-legible headers on every fiche indicating the author, 1997).

finding aids abbreviated title, place and date of printing of each item. Kabakoff, J. ‘Ephraim Deinard’s Kohelet

America’, in his Seekers and Stalwarts: Essays and Studies in American Hebrew Literature and Culture (Jerusalem, 1978, in Hebrew).

Newman, L. ‘Solomon Roubin and Ephraim Deinard, Cataloguers of the Hebraica in the Sutro Library in San Francisco’, in Semitic and Oriental Studies … presented to W. Popper, ed. W.J. Fischel (Berkeley, 1951).

Schapiro, I. ‘Ephraim Deinard’, in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 34 (1937).

Trevisan Semi, E. ‘Le Sefer Massa Qrim de Deinard: but parodique ou polémique?’, in Revue des Etudes Juives 157 (Paris, 1998).

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