Smolenskin, Perez

Related Category: Hebrew Literature: Biographies

(pĕr´ĕts smōlĕn´skĭn), c.1842–1885, Russian novelist and essayist who wrote in Hebrew. He settled in Vienna and founded the Hebrew monthly journal Ha-Shahar, which he edited until his death. His articles favored increased contact with the West. After the Russian pogroms of 1880–81, however, he became a champion of Zionism. His best-known novel is probably Am 'Olam (1873).