YITSKHOK-ELYOHU-MIKHL HAKOHEN

YITSKHOK-ELYOHU-MIKHL HAKOHEN (1834-September 17, 1914)

            He was born in Yasvin (Josvainiai), Kovno region, Lithuania, into a rabbinic family.  In 1841 he moved with his parents to Jerusalem.  He was a student of R. Shmuel Salant, and later studied in Polish and Lithuanian yeshivas.  He returned in 1855 to Israel, for a time worked as a community scribe, and later served as secretary for the Bikur Ḥolim Hospital.  He was one of the founders of the Jewish press in Israel.  He served as editor (together with Yekhiel Bril) of the first Hebrew newspaper in Jerusalem, Halevanon (Lebanon) in 1863, later editor of Ḥavatselet (Daffodil, 1870-1877) and Haariel (The hero, 19875-1877)—both in Jerusalem.  In 1877 he edited with Yisroel-Dov Frumkin Di roze (The rose), “a Yiddish family newspaper for all who love Zion and Jerusalem, published for the time being twice each month.”  He also published a variety of works about Jewish and general issues.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: E. R. Malachi, Luaḥ erets yisrael (Calender of Israel) (Jerusalem, 1916); M. Kosover, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) 20-21 (1936); M. Unger, in Zamlbukh lekoved dem tsveyhundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese, 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of the 250^th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936), ed. Dr. Y. Shatski (New York, 1937); D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv) (Tel Aviv, 1947-), pp. 373-74.

Khayim Leyb Fuks