Papers and memorabilia of Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki (1859-1944), Israeli literary figure.

ARCHIVE OF ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE Rawnitzki (1859-1955) a native of Odessa, exerted significant influence on the development of Modern Hebrew literature, both as a writer and as a publisher. He is most famous for his popular Sepher ha-Agadah (1908-1911), a collection of the tales of the Rabbis, written in collaboration with the poet H.N. Bialik. Rawnitzki established two Hebrew publishing houses, the first, Moriah in Odessa (1901), the second, Dvir in Tel Aviv (1921). In both endeavors, his lifelong friend Bialik was an active partner. (See EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 1588-9). In the present notes for his work on ibn Gabirol, we see how resourceful Rawnitzki was in tracking down poems attributed to ibn Gabirol in manuscripts scattered around the world. Besides scouring libraries, he mentions a manuscript he found in the possession of the Karaite Chazan of Evpatoria (Gozlava), Crimea, and a Genizah fragment in the possession of the Chief Rabbi of France, Israel Levi. Neither was Rawnitzki necessarily daunted by authority Israel Davidson's judgment in an instance where the manuscript evidence pointed in the opposite direction from Davidson's surmise. The impression one receives from the archive is that Rawnitzki paid meticulous attention to the textual variants. Rawnitzki's grandson Yonah Yarchi (Rawnitzki) was felled in the Sinai Campaign of 1956; two months later, the soldier's father Eliyahu Rawnitzki (son of Y. H. Rawnitzki) died. The collection includes a pathos-laden letter of condolence from author Yehudah Even-Shmuel (Kaufman) to Eliyahu Rawnitzki upon the death of his only son Yonah. One should note that Even Shmuel himself lost his only son in the War of Independence in 1948. (Concerning the relation between Even-Shmuel and his lamented son, see the fictionalized account of Shraga Kadari, Professor Elkanah ve-Rami Beno [1971]). An inventory of the papers in this Lot is available upon request