FRIEDRICHSFELD, DAVID B. ZEBI HIRSCH:

German and Hebrew author; born about 1755 in Berlin; died Feb. 19, 1810, in Amsterdam. In the Prussian capital he absorbed the scholarship and ideas of the contemporaneous Meassefim. In 1781 he went to Amsterdam, where he was one of the leaders in the fight for the emancipation of the Jews, writing in the promotion of this cause his "Beleuchtung . . . das Bürgerrecht der Juden Betreffend," Amsterdam, 1795, and "Appell an die Stände Hollands," etc., ib., 1797. Besides contributing to the "Ha-Meassef," he wrote "Ma'aneh Rak," on the pronunciation of Hebrew among the Sephardim(being also a defense of Moses Leman's "Imrah Ẓerufah)," Amsterdam, 1808; and "Zeker Ẓaddiḳ," a biography of Hartwig Wessely, ib. 1809. Some of his works are still in manuscript (comp. Steinschneider, "Verzeichnis der Hebr. Handschriften der Königl. Bibliothek zu Berlin," ii., No. 255, pp. 110 et seq.).

Bibliography:
  • Grätz, Gesch. 1st ed., xi. 134, 229;
  • Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 987;
  • Zeitlin, Bibl. Post-Mendels. p. 99.
S. H. B.
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