JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

elazari-volcani, yiẒḤak
and published a bibliography of him in 1997, feeling that his
former teacher was already forgotten.
As a Jerusalem Street Names Committee member, he
proposed names of past Sephardi figures for streets. He received
the distinction Yakir Yerushalayim and is buried in the
section of prominent Jerusalemites in the Har Menuḥot cemetery
in Jerusalem. He was the uncle of the American Sephardi
leader and political scientist Daniel *Elazar and a cousin of
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff David *Elazar.
[Yitzchak Kerem (2nd ed.)]
ELAZARI-VOLCANI (Wilkansky), YIẒḤAK (1880–1955),
agronomist and one of the planners of agricultural settlement
in Ereẓ Israel, brother of Meir Wilkansky. Born at Eisiskes,
near Vilna, Elazari-Volcani studied at European universities
and in 1908 immigrated to Ereẓ Israel, where he managed the
farm settlements of Ben Shemen and Ḥuldah (1909–18). He
was an active member of the Ha-Po’el ha-Ẓa’ir party, which he
represented at Zionist Congresses and in Zionist institutions.
In 1921, he set up the experimental agricultural station of the
Zionist Executive (today the Agricultural Research Station)
and ran it until his retirement in 1951. He was one of the founders
of the Institute for Agricultural Studies of the Hebrew University
at Reḥovot, which later became the university’s faculty
of agriculture. In 1938, he was appointed professor of agricultural
economics, and held various public and scientific posts
connected with agriculture.
Volcani was also a prolific writer and polemicist. His first
writings were published in David *Frischmann’s journal Ha-
Dor and he later contributed to J.H. *Brenner’s Ha-Me’orer.
Under the name of “E. Ẓiyyoni,” he was also one of the main
contributors to Ha-Po’el ha-Ẓair from its foundation. He was
the first to give a positive evaluation of Baron de Rothschild’s
settlement scheme, and contended that it laid healthy foundations
for the continuation of Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel.
He also wrote literary studies and plays (under the pseudonym
I. Avuyah). He published several books on agricultural subjects,
settlement, etc. His collected articles on agriculture and
other topics were published in ten volumes.
His brother, MEIR WILKANSKY (Elazari-Volcani) (1882–
1949), Hebrew author, was born in Eisiskes, and immigrated
to Ereẓ Israel in 1904. He first worked as an agricultural laborer;
between 1908 and 1918, he was secretary of the *Palestine
Office and, from 1918 until his retirement in 1942, head
of the Palestine Land Development Company. Wilkansky was
one of the first writers to depict the life of the pioneers of the
Second Aliyah in Hebrew fiction. His stories include “Be’er
Ḥafarnu,” “Baḥar,” and “Yom Avodati ha-Rishon.” His books
include Sippurim me-Ḥayyei ha-Areẓ (1918), Ba-Ḥeder (1934),
Bi-Ymei ha-Aliyyah (1935), Mi-Gal el Gal (1943), and Senuniyyot
(1963). He translated two of Goethe’s works, Die Leiden
des jungen Werthers and Dichtung und Wahrheit (Yefet series,
1911–12), and published two statistical pamphlets on Jewish
settlement in Palestine (1918–19). Meir's son, RAANAN VOL-
CANI (1910–2002), became associate professor of animal hus-
bandry at the agricultural faculty of the Hebrew University in
1960 and head of the Husbandry Department of the National
and University Institute of Agriculture at Reḥovot.
Bibliography: Hebrew University, Ha-Fakultah le-Ḥakla’ut
(1958), 16–40, 261–7; A. Granott, Ishim be-Yisrael (1956), 225–38; I.
Cohen, Demut el Demut (1949), 234–45; J. Fischmann, Be-Terem Aviv
(1959), 332–56; M. Smilansky, Mishpaḥat ha-Adamah, 4 (1953), 282–7;
Y. Keshet, Maskiyyot (1953), 109–21.
[Getzel Kressel]
ELBAZ, North African family noted for its rabbis. The Elbaz
family originally lived in Azzaouia, *Morocco, from which it
was expelled in 1668 by King Moulai Rashid along with 1,300
other families. They then settled in Fez and in Sefrou. Members
of the family included MOSES BEN MAIMON *ALBAZ OF
TARRODANT, author of Heikhal Kodesh, a kabbalistic commentary
to the prayer book (Amsterdam, 1653), SAMUEL
BEN ISAAC, author of Toledot Adam, a brief history up to the
burning of the books in Italy (Venice, 1585), JACOB, author of
Toledot Ya’akov, sermons (Venice, 1609), and SAMUEL BEN
ISAAC (1698–1749), talmudist and codifier, who was head of
the bet din of Fez. He was a friend of Ḥayyim b. Moses Attar,
who would make no legal decision without his consent.
Samuel is the author of Va-Yomer Shemu’el, talmudic novellae
(Casablanca, 1929); his other works are still in manuscript.
Many of his decisions were published in Jacob Ibn Ẓur’s Mishpat
u-Ẓedakah be-Ya’akov (Alexandria, pt. 1, 1894; pt. 2, 1903).
Some of his piyyutim are in manuscript at the Ben-Zvi Institute
in Jerusalem (no. 2072). JUDAH (1770–1847) was a codifier
who headed the bet din of Sefrou. Many of his decisions
were published in Avnei Shayish (2 pts., Jerusalem, 1930–34),
and in his son’s Ḥayyei Amram. He was one of the major
fundraisers for the kolelim in Ereẓ Israel. His son AMRAM
(1799–1857), codifier, judge, and poet, wrote Ḥayyei Amram
(Meknes, 1949). Another son, SAMUEL (1790–1844), left behind
a manuscript work on Rashi, Ḥanokh la-Na’ar. RAPHAEL
MOSES ((1823–1896), Samuel’s son, was a talmudic scholar,
kabbalist, poet, and scientist. He wrote many works, including
Halakhah le-Moshe, responsa (Jerusalem, 1901); Shir Ḥadash,
poems (Jerusalem, 1935); and Eden mi-Kedem (Fez, 1940). Still
in manuscript are many of his writings, including Kisse ha-
Melakhim, a history of ancient kings and of the Jews.
Bibliography: S. Bass, Siftei Yeshenim (Amsterdam, 1680),
400, nos. 20, 28; H. Ben-Attar, Peri To’ar (Lemberg [?], 1810), introduction;
J.M. Toledano, Ner ha-Ma’arav (1911), 74, 107, 138, 142, 208;
idem, Oẓar Genazim (1960), 88; J. Ben-Naim, Malkhei Rabbanan
(1931), 44, 102, 107, 120–1; A. Elbaz, Ḥayyei Amram (1949), introduction.
[David Obadia]
ELBERG, YEHUDA (1912–2003), Yiddish journalist and
novelist. Born in Zgierz, Poland, Elberg came from a rabbinical
family and was ordained as a rabbi. He was a distant cousin
of the literary *Singer family. He began publishing stories and
journalistic articles in Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers in
1932. His wartime activity involved smuggling people through
290 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6