Creator Bio

Isaac Ber Levinzon

1788–1860

Isaac (Yitsḥak) Ber Levinzon was born into a wealthy family in Kremenets, Ukraine. Although he received a traditional Jewish education, he also mastered Russian, German, French, and Latin, and was influenced by early Haskalah figures when he moved to Galicia, including Solomon Judah Rapoport, Isaac Erter, and Menachem Mendel Lefin. He made it his life’s work to improve educational opportunities for Jews; his suggestions about publishing Hebrew books in the Russian Empire were adopted by governmental authorities; he also encouraged Jews to improve their lot by working in agriculture. Levinzon campaigned against blood-libel accusations and fought to discourage corruption and inequality within Jewish society over issues such as army recruitment. His works, in several genres including drama, often mocked Hasidism.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

Primary Source

Emek refa’im (Valley of Giants)

Public Access
Text
When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
Painting of two men seated at a table with another man standing behind them, and woman in doorway carrying tray of tea.
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Related Guide

Haskalah and Pedagogy, 1750–1880

The first maskilim ransacked both Jewish and European tradition to find new platforms for creating and transmitting the Jewish cultural ideals they conceived. Jews enlisted diverse literary genres to call for social, educational, and economic change.