Zebi Hirsch Scherschewski

Zebi Hirsch Scherschewski
Born	1840 (1840) Pinsk
Died	1909 (age 68–69)
Pen name	יעבץ ישוע שר עסק
Language	Hebrew, Yiddish
Literary movement	Haskalah

Zebi Hirsch ha-Kohen Scherschewski (Yiddish: צבי הירש הכהן שערשעווסקי, romanized: Tsvi Hirsh ha-Kohen Shershevski; 1840–1909) was a Russian Hebrew writer.

Biography

Scherschewski was born at Pinsk in 1840. While still a boy he studied Hebrew grammar and archaeology without a teacher. After serving as secretary of the Jewish community of Pinsk, he went to the Crimea, where, at Melitopol, he entered the service of a merchant named Seidener. Later he became assistant editor of Aleksander Zederbaum's Ha-Melitz. During the Russo-Turkish war he followed the Russian army as a sutler; and after a second short stay with his former employer, Seidener, he settled in 1883 at Rostov-on-the-Don, where he opened a bookstore.

In addition to numerous contributions to current Hebrew journals, Scherschewski wrote Boser Avot (Odessa, 1877), a satirical poem on the neglect of the education of Jewish children in Russia, and Iyyun Sifrut (Vilna, 1881), on the development of Jewish literature and its significance as a cultural element for raising the Jews to a higher moral standing. His notes to the Midrash Shoḥer Tov are printed in Padua's Warsaw edition of that midrash, and his rhymed parodies are to be found in Keneset Yisrael.

Partial bibliography

• Boser Avot. Odessa: L. Nitsche. 1877.
• Iyyun Sifrut. Vilna: Yehuda Leib Matz. 1881.
• "Ben-Mishle". Keneset Yisrael. 1: 401–408.
• "Ben-Mishle". Keneset Yisrael. 2: 2–6.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; Seligsohn, M. (1901–1906). "Scherschewski, Ẓebi Hirsch ha-Kohen". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 95.