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Only issue of periodical by Ephraim Deinard. Among the articles in this journal published by the Mafitze Sifrat Zion Society are some on Zionism and Hebraic culture in America. List of Zionist societies in America (pp. 4-11); letters that Deinard sent on behalf of Mafitze Sifrat Zion to President William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland (pp. 45-9); a bio-bibliography of Bernhard Felsenthal (pp. 55-7); short book reviews by Deinard (pp. 50-5); poetry (pp. 22-3). Deinard records, "on account of an error by the young typesetter my name does not appear on [the title page] of this work, the majority of which I authored" (KA, part 1, p. 55n). However, only seven of the fifteen articles are signed by him. Other contributors included Julius [Joel] Aronson, A. B. Dobsewitch, Judah David Eisenstein, Max Nordau, Moses Hacohen Reicherson, Abraham Hayyim Rosenberg and R. Moses Weinberger. Subscriptions cost fifty cents. The printer later reported, "I received many subscriptions. Only a few paid the fifty cents in advance, the majority promised to pay once they received the book. After they received it they again promised [to pay], but their promise will forever remain unfulfilled.
Ephraim Deinard, (1846–1930), bibliographer and Hebrew author was born in Sasmakken, Latvia, Deinard wandered in his youth, collecting ancient manuscripts and books in many countries, and then established a bookshop in Odessa. In 1897 he tried unsuccessfully to found an agricultural settlement in Nevada (U.S.). An active Zionist, he settled in Palestine in 1913 where he investigated the possibilities of Jewish settlement. After being expelled by the Turks in 1916 he returned to the United States and continued his bibliographical work. His two most noteworthy bibliographical works are Or Mayer: Catalogue of the Old Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books of the Library of the Hon. Mayer Sulzberger of Philadelphia (1896) and Koheleth America (1926), a listing of Hebrew books published in America from 1735 to 1926. The first part of the latter work contains essays on the state of Hebrew literature in America, which are written in his unadorned, but typically acerbic, style. He laid the foundations of the Hebrew book and manuscript collections of the Library of Congress with the financial aid of Jacob Schiff. A violent polemicist on many controversial subjects, he attacked Reform Judaism, Hasidism, Christianity, and Karaism. Deinard was a prolific Hebrew writer, producing more than 50 books and pamphlets often signed with his pseudonym, Adir. |
