Rabbi

Samson Rausuk
Native name
שמשון ראוזוק
Born1793 (1793)[1]
Vilkovishk, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died (aged 84)[2]
London, United Kingdom
Occupation
  • Librarian
  • Hebraist
  • Talmudist
  • poet
LanguageHebrew
GenreOccasional poetry[3]

Samson H. Rausuk (Hebrew: שמשון ראוזוק, romanized: Šimšon Rauzuq; 1793 – 11 September 1877) was a Lithuanian-British librarian, Hebraist, Talmudic scholar, and poet. He was regarded as the 'poet laureate' of the London Jewish community for nearly thirty years.[4]

Biography

Rausuk was born in Vilkovishk, Lithuania, where he received a traditional Litvak yeshiva education, and pursued a career as a merchant.[5] On the occasion of the visit of Sir Moses Montefiore to Russia in 1846, Rausuk was one of the delegates appointed to receive him. He moved to London in 1848, and held the post of librarian to the Leadenhall Street Beth Hamedrash for nearly a quarter of a century.[6]

During this time, he published many of his Hebrew compositions, often dealing with subjects of passing interest to the local community, and contributed to the Jewish Chronicle.[5][7] Among Rausuk's poems were odes to Montefiore in commemoration of his missions to Romania and Morocco.[8][9] He also contributed to a volume of translations of Martin Farquhar Tupper's A Hymn for All Nations, other contributors to which included William Hodge Mill, Thomas Robinson, W. Burckhardt Barker, Benjamin Hall Kennedy, Richard Shilleto, Rowland Williams, W. Gifford Cookesley, Morris Williams, John O'Donovan, Thomas McLauchlan, George Métivier, Gabriele Rossetti, and Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh.[10]

Publications

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Kagan, Berl (1991). Yidishe shtet, shtetlech un dorfishe yishuvim in Lite [Jewish cities, towns and villages in Lithuania] (in Yiddish). New York. p. 100.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Berger, Doreen, ed. (1999). The Jewish Victorian: Genealogical Information from the Jewish Newspapers, 1871–1880. Whitney, Oxon.: Robert Boyd Publications. ISBN 978-1-899536-38-2.
  3. ^ Раусук, Симсон [Rausuk, Samson]. Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). Vol. 13. St. Petersburg. 1906–1913. p. 329.((cite encyclopedia)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^  Jacobs, Joseph; Lipkind, Goodman (1905). "Rausuk, Samson". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 333.
  5. ^ a b Rubinstein, William D.; Jolles, Michael A.; Rubinstein, Hillary L., eds. (2011). "Rausuk, Samson". The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 789–790. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6. OCLC 793104984.
  6. ^ Lippe, Ch. D. (1881). Bibliographisches Lexicon der gesammten jüdischen Literatur der Gegenwart und Adress-Anzeiger (in German). Vienna: Verlag von D. Löwy. p. 39.
  7. ^ "Some Anglo-Jewish Poets". The Menorah. 7 (4): 213. October 1889.
  8. ^ Judaica and Hebraica: Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Illustrative of the History, Martyrdom and Literature of the Jews. London: Maggs Bros. 1922. p. 116.
  9. ^ Goodman, Paul (1925). Moses Montefiore. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 235.
  10. ^ Martin Farquhar Tupper, M. F., ed. (1851). A Hymn for All Nations: Translated into Thirty Languages. London: Thomas Brettell. p. 23.
Categories