Ze’ev Yavetz

Born in Kolno, Russian Empire (today in Poland), Ze’ev Yavetz received a traditional education and upbringing. His first published writing—a history article—appeared in Peretz Smolenskin’s Hebraist journal Ha-Shaḥar. In 1887, Yavetz immigrated to Palestine, settling on a moshavah (colony) near the village of al-Yehudiya (today Yehud). In 1890, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild invited Yavetz to serve as head of a school in the recently established Jewish town Zikhron Ya‘akov. One of the first significant figures of the fledgling modern Hebrew cultural sphere in Palestine, Yavetz left Palestine for Vilna in 1902; there, he helped to establish the religious Zionist Merkaz ruḥani (Mizraḥi) movement and edited its primary organ Ha-Mizraḥi. Late in his life, Yavetz moved to the United Kingdom, there publishing his fourteen-volume magnum opus Sefer toldot Yisra’el (History of the Jewish People). He died in London.