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Jacob Saphir

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A photograph of Saphir from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia

Old Yishuv
Jewish life in the Land of Israel
Key events
Aliya of Nachmanides (1267) Hebron and Safed massacres (1517) Revival of Tiberias (1563) Sack of Tiberias (1660) Hebron massacre (1834) Safed attack (1838) Jerusalem expansion Petach Tikva founded (1878)
Key figures
Ishtori Haparchi (d. 1313) Joseph Saragossi (d. 1507) Obadiah MiBartenura (d. 1515) Levi ibn Habib (d. 1545) Jacob Berab (d. 1546) Joseph Nasi (d. 1579) Moses Galante (d. 1689) Moses ibn Habib (d. 1696) Yehuda he-Hasid (d. 1700) Haim Abulafia (d. 1744) Menachem Mendel (d. 1788) Haim Farhi (d. 1820) Jacob Saphir (d. 1886) Haim Aharon Valero (d. 1923)
Economy
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Philanthropy
Kollel Halukka  Montefiore Judah Touro
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Musta'arabim Sephardim Perushim Hasidim Jerusalem  Mea Shearim Mishkenot Sha'ananim Hebron Safed Tiberias Jaffa Haifa Peki'in Acco Shechem Gaza Kafr Yasif Shefa-'Amr Petach Tikva
Synagogues
Great Academy of Paris (1258) Ramban (1267) Abuhav (1490s) Abraham Avinu (1540) Ari (1570s) Johanan ben Zakai (1600s) Hurva (1700) Tifereth Israel (1872)
Related articles
History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel History of Zionism  Timeline Haredim and Zionism Edah HaChareidis ShaDaR Yishuv Three Oaths
v t e

Jacob Saphir (1822–1886) (Hebrew: יעקב הלוי ספיר‎) was a Meshulach and traveler of Rumanian Jewish descent, born in Oshmyany, government of Wilna.

While still a boy he went to Ottoman Palestine with his parents, who settled at Safed, and at their death in 1836, he moved to Jerusalem. In 1848, he was commissioned by the Jewish community of the latter city to travel through the southern countries to collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem. In 1854 he undertook a second tour to collect funds for the construction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter which led him in 1859 to Yemen, British India, Egypt, and Australia.

The result of this journey was his momentous ethnographic work, `Even Sapir,^[1] a travel diary in which he gave the history, and a vivid though uncritical description of the condition of the Jews in the above-mentioned countries. Saphir published also Iggeret Teman (Wilna, 1868, consciously titled after Rambam's letter of centuries earlier), a work on the appearance in Yemen of the pseudo-Messiah Judah ben Shalom, and which was largely responsible for ending Judah ben Shalom's career. Saphir died in Jerusalem in 1886.

Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the Cairo geniza, as well as the first to publicize the existence of the Midrash ha-Gadol, both later studied with great panache by Solomon Schechter.

Sapir also did a lot of research and writings on Yanover, Palestinian and Greek etrogs.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography[edit]

• Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 557–558;
• idem, in Ha-Karmel, vi, Wilna, 1866;
• Geiger, Abraham, in Jüd. Zeit. xi.263-270.

External links[edit]

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jacob Saphir written by Isidore Singer & Schulim Ochser.
• Publications by Jacob Saphir
• Rabbi Jacob Levi Saphir & his Voyage to Australia

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Jacob Saphir, Iben Safir (vol. 1 & 2) Lyck 1866 (Hebrew). [Yesovev ʼAdmat Ḥam (masaʼ Miṛayim) Yam Suf, Ḥadre Teman, Mizraḥ Hodu kulo, ʼErets ha-ḥadashah ʼOsṭralya u-teshuvato ha-ramatah Yėrushalayim. ha-ʼAratsot ʼasher sovavti ṿe-tarti ... matsav ṿe-toʼ ar aḥenu ... ṿeha-mosaʻot ʼotam me-az ʻad ha-yom, ṿe-nilṿah ʼelehem sipurim ṿe-ʻinyanim toranim ṿa-ḥaḳirot ṿe-heʻarot ... ṿe-tsiyune ṿe-reshimot matsevot ʻatiḳot ... ṿe-shire ḳodesh ... / [meʼet] Yaʻaḳov Sapir ha-Leṿi']; Second edi