[Page 135]

R' Joseph Zvi Buber, Grandson of the Author of the Responsa 'The Wishes of Benjamin'
	2) R' Meir	1) R' Yeshayahu Avraham - Died 20 Nissan 5637 (April 3, 1877)
1) Chaim Ze'ev Falk	1) R' Joseph Zvi 2) R' Yitzhak, Lvov Yeshiva Headmaster 3) Zlata married to Falk in Belz	R' Shlomo 1827-1906 Zigmund, Yahalom, Moshe
	1) Chaim 2) Joseph Zvi (In Tel-Aviv) 3) Elazar 4) Bluma (Married to Simcha Mund)	1) Mordechai Martin Professor in Jerusalem 2) Orna, married to Halpern 3) Nellie married to Dr. Marcus Brauda

Uri
Chaim
Israel
Mordechai Rubinstein
1) Uri Zvi (His wife, Chaya)	2) Shlomo Rubinstein
1) David Zvi	2) Sarah Leah married to Yeshayahu Avraham Buber

Uri Fybusz HaLevi, a Teacher in Amsterdam, 1544-1626
Uri Schraga Feivusz ben Aharon HaLevi, Died in Zolkiew in 1704
	Aharon , died in 1745	Gershon
1) Chadyim Don Printer 1782	2) Yehudit married to David ben Menakhtzman Afterwards the second wife of Rabbi Roganish	Ze'ev Wolf died (1775) His wife, Tcharni (1794)	2) Rivka Married to Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Roganish, died in 1765
Gershon Latriss 1770-1842	Hertz Grusmi (1804) His wife Chana (1837)	Aharon the Printer His wife Chava Tauba (1829)
Avraham Joseph the Printer	Dr. Meir Latriss 187? - 1907

[Page 136]

1.   R' Shmuel Szmelke Rokeach Margaliot R' Elazar Rokeach 5425-5491 (1665-1731) Author of 'Ma'aseh Rokeach' Bet-Din Senior of Cracow, Brody and Amsterdam. Died in Tzfat R' Moshe Rokeach Died in 5413 (1753) Bet-Din Senior of Zolkiew and Baraf R' Shmuel Szmelke Rokeach Rabbi to the tailors in Brody

2.   R. Chaim Schur (a scion of R' Joseph Schur, a Tosafot master from Orleans, a student of Rabbenu Tam) R' Moshe Ephraim Schur R' Shmuel Schur R' Avraham Leib Schur from Lvov Dvora (?) R' Yehuda Leib Schur from Lvov R' Ephraim Zalman Schur from Lvov R' Alexander Sender Schur from Zolkiew, the author of 'Tevuot Schur,' 'Shleyma Khadasha', 'Bkhor Schur.' Died in Zolkiew 5497 (1737)

Addenda - pages 187-194
Footnotes - pages 195-206

[Page 137]

Lvov did not have its own Hebrew printing house. At the time when a printing house in Cracow published its first book in the Holy Tongue in 1534, and after a short time such books also appeared in Lublin, no one seemed to pay any attention to this in Lvov. It is possible that a reason for this was because there were no individuals ready to open a printing facility or because the two printing businesses in Cracow and Lublin satisfied the needs of the Jews in Poland. There wasn't one printing facility in Lvov until the end of the 18th century. Nevertheless, there was a printing facility in nearby Zolkiew. Its founder was Uri Fybusz HaLevi, who had come from Amsterdam. He was a patriarch of the Latriss printing family, and founder of the Hebrew printing facility in Lvov.

This first printer in Zolkiew had miraculous luck, but more specifically his family was lucky. The destiny of the family was a small sample of the migration of Jews in general: Emden – Amsterdam – Zolkiew – Lvov – Vienna. These were the stations along the path of suffering. These were the road signs on the way that led from west to east and its return, God forbid, to our pain, before this path was sealed off.

There was a violent storm in 1559 that struck the sea near Emden in Friesland. Two ships that had left Spain were sacrificed to the shores. There were ten Anusim of the forced conversions^[2], with their wives and four children. They carried valuable merchandise with them, such as woven goods, gold and silver. They had hired the ships in order to reach the beautiful and wealthy Amsterdam. However, the terrible storm tossed the ships on their wanderings like nutshells. The passengers prayed to God so that he should see their poverty and have mercy on them, because they had turned to Amsterdam in order to return to the people of Israel and not

[Page 138]

continue worshiping other Gods. The Holy One, Blessed Be He was filled with pity, and the waves subsided. When the sailors began to inspect the hull and decks of the ships, they found many cracks through which water had penetrated. They agreed to drop anchor in the port of Emden to inspect the ships.

The Anusim came to the city of Emden, and rented a nice home in order to rest from the stress of the trip, and to rescue their goods. After they rested a bit they ventured out. A young man offered to show them around to see the good aspects of the city. During their walk they noticed a slaughtered goose through the window of a house, and beside it was a note written in a language they did not know. When these travelers returned to the hotel, they told the owner what they had seen, and asked him to prepare a goose for their midday meal. The owner immediately sent the boy out, and when he returned with a goose he said to them: ‘look and see, I bought this goose from the Jew Moshe Uri HaLevi – and here is the note in the Hebrew language!’ The guests from Spain called out in amazement: ‘did we hear this right. There are Jews in this place?’

The owner of the hotel, who was himself Jewish, answered and said: ‘Well, yes. In 1581, when seven provinces of Holland were torn away from the Spanish crown, the representatives in place issued an announcement to say that permission was granted to all people, regardless of faith, to settle down on this land, and to practice their faith, except Catholics, because they are intent upon creating a tie to return under the hegemony of Spain!’ And the Spanish guests replied and said: ‘It is our wish to go to see this man tomorrow because we have a secret to tell him.’

The following day, the owner went with two of the revered Anusim to R' Moshe Uri, and when he saw these honorable guests, he went out to greet them, and led them into his house. When they started to speak Spanish, he called his son to translate for them; this was because he did not know this language. The guests said in Spanish: ‘it is our desire to reveal a deep secret, please take us into your house, so that we can speak without any stranger hearing us.’ When he admitted them into a room, they opened up and said: ‘now we can reveal to you that we are not Catholics and not Spaniards, but Jews, and we pray as you do, to only whom we are fit to pray, like you, morning and evening, the Creator may He be Blessed, with complete faith and there is no one singly like him in any form. We fled for our lives from Castile in order that we may be able to worship God in the open in Amsterdam. We had heard that there, it was possible to do so out in the open. We were tossed to this city because of the storm and here we wish to enter into the Covenant of Abraham and be circumcised. We want to invite those knowledgeable in the Torah for ourselves and our children, a teacher and Rabbi, who will teach us the essentials of the Torah of God, and to pray with us daily. Whoever will assume this responsibility will not regret it, and will want for nothing, because God has blessed us with everything, in generous amounts.’

Moshe Uri HaLevi answered and said: ‘Thanks to the God above who brought you to our house, take courage, and we will fulfill your wishes. However, it is not possible to do this here. Go out to Amsterdam, and we will come after you.’

After their ships were repaired, they left for Amsterdam. On April 22, 1593 they rented a residence on Jangerstraat Street and R' Moshe Uri and his family arrived three weeks later. Moshe Uri sold his house and business in Emden and moved to Amsterdam.

On the following day, Moshe Uri began to work with them, and the first one to accept the yoke of teaching the Torah and Mitzvot was the very religious, elderly man, Don Yaakov Tirado.

[Page 139]

Moshe Uri Fybusz HaLevi (1544-1620) was the first teacher of the new Amsterdam congregation until his death. His son, Aharon (grandson of Moshe) was the Uri-Fybusz HaLevi, active in the later 17^th century.

He was a renowned printer, who had published many books in the 1660s. From 1676-1678 Uri-Fybusz undertook to publish a Tanakh in a Yiddish-German translation, carried out by Jekuthiel Blitz. In general, the printing was beyond his capacity and he took on two local Christian citizens as help: the council member Wilhelm Blau and the lawyer Vaverzhenitz (Lorenzo) Baka. In order to secure their property, the two partners attempted to obtain permission from Jan Sobieski for the ownership of the Tanakh, the right to sell it in Poland, and a prohibition against printing by any of their competitors for twenty years.

Uri-Fybusz had previously received a similar permission for ten years regarding his published Jewish books, from the Va'ad Arba HaAratzot in Poland. However, competitors did not pay attention to all of these official promises. Joseph Weizenhausen carried out a similar translation and it was published by Joseph Attias, a wealthy printer and publisher in Amsterdam.

It is possible to conjecture that because of the competition, Uri-Fybusz could not maintain a position in Amsterdam. In about 1690, he moved his residence to Poland for proximity. He settled in Zolkiew, and it is possible he obtained a privilege from the King, Jan Sobieski III, before receiving this offering. It is also possible that this was a grant, because in 1782, the great-grandchildren of Uri relied on it during an inspection; the first inspection done of printing houses by Austria. This inspection produced no adverse consequences.

When R' Uri-Fybusz moved to Zolkiew, times were good for the Jewish communities in the city, because that was where Jan III ‘the ruler of Zolkiew’ set up his residence, which included two influential Jews in his court: The Doctor of the Courtyard, Dr. Simcha Menachem, and Bezalel Ben-Nathan, who was in charge of taxes in Ruthenia. It appears that the new printing operation operated under their aegis, and they supported it against predatory competitors. And, there was no lack of competition for printing in Poland. Uri-Fybusz printed in a clean and handsome way, at a time when the printing houses in Cracow and Lublin cut corners and used less-than-adequate paper. The Parnassim of Va'ad Arba HaAratzot in Jaroslaw complained as early as 1680 about the inferior printing and smudging of the textbooks, and that it ruined the student's eyes. The Va'ad decided to put an end to this matter: ‘to clean off the roads, to push the stones off the sides of the road, and to hold onto the ‘Tree of Life’ that is to say, he gave direction to print in a good manner without mistakes.’ R' Uri-Fybusz worked a great deal against the deterioration of trust in the printing, as witnessed in the ‘Takanot of the Va'ad’ that were set down in 1697:

‘We have seen the substantial wreckage brought about by the jolt from the loss of faith in printing in our country; Because of these printers, the Torah of Israel has practically been forgotten, because the letters in their books cause damage to the eyes of the genial youth that take an interest in books. The elderly Sages, and leaders of Arba HaAratzot expressed their opinion about this, but to no avail, until we found solace in R' Uri Fybusz HaLevi to bring back light to the land and its residents.’

At one of the sittings of Va'ad Arba HaAratzot, there was a presentation regarding the printing house of Uri-Fybusz, indicating that two other printing houses wanted to subvert him. They brought in materials from outside the country and sold them in their printing houses, to compete with books published by R' Uri Fybusz.

[Page 140]

Va'ad Arba HaAratzot supported R' Uri-Fybusz and decided that each of the printing houses in the country (Cracow, Lublin, Zolkiew) was permitted to print up to seven hundred pages in addition to smaller printed items, and only in their printing houses and not outside of the country. Accordingly, they designated an inspector for each printing house. The designated inspectors for the Zolkiew printing houses were the Rabbi and the courtyard physician, Dr. Simcha Menachem Ma'anah (Mann?).

An Illustration of the frontispiece of a machzor printed in Zolkiew in 1806.

After the death of Uri-Fybusz, his printing house was inherited by his two grandsons, Aharon and Gershon. Chaim David, the son of Uri-Fybusz, was their father, but he died at an early age. Aharon and Gershon printed books on their own and also together, which proves that they divided the printing

[Page 141]

facility into two parts between them, and each ran a part. In 1732, Aharon and Gershon published ‘Beyt Levi’ for R' Levi ben Shmuel of Brody ‘with the permission of the heir Wakov’, and in 1753, there were other partnerships.

Gershon published the book, ‘Kol Yehuda’ together with David ben Menachem Mann, the son-in-law of his brother Aharon. In 1766, We see the work of these partners again in 1766, on the frontispiece of Alexander Schur's book, ‘Simla Khadasha,’ printed during the reign of His Majesty, the royal Karol Stanislaw-Radziwill. Below the title of the book was written, ‘Amsterdam, using the letters of Zolkiew.’

Aharon ben Chaim-David had a son and a daughter. The son's name was Chaim-David, the same name of his grandfather. His nickname was ‘The Printer.’ Aharon's daughter married David, the son of Menachem, and after he died, she married R' Zvi-Hirsch Rozhans, the Rabbi of Lvov, who died in 1805. Chaim-David married Tauba and she had a son. Aharon the printer, and his son, Avraham Joseph, were the owners of the print shop almost to the end of the 19^th century. (Lvov, Kazmyerszuvska, vol. 21).

The second branch of the family descended from the children of R' Gershon, who took the name Latriss during the Austrian régime. The renowned scholar, Dr. Meir HaLevi Latriss (1800-1871) was from this family.

After the capture of Galicia by Austria, the new régime began to inspect printing houses, and mostly the Jewish printing houses. The Royal Courtyard prepared a list of all the printing houses, and found that they were located only in Sambor and Zolkiew. The Sambor printing house, actually composed of two small divisions, had a privilege from August III, and only printed calendars and small pamphlets. This establishment belonged to the grandsons of R' Uri-Fybusz, and depended on the privilege of Jan III. Following the inspection of the privileges of the printing houses, the office of the Royal Courtyard suggested it might be appropriate to move all three of these printing houses together to Lvov, and merge them into one, larger, business. On May 20, 1782, Kaiser [Franz] Joseph II sent a series of questions to the courtyard office and on June 4, the Galician Guberniya came to an agreement. The management of the Gubernia did not return a positive reply for the transfer of the statistical data to Vienna for a full year after that, until July 4, 1783, and even added some questions:

1. Is it worthwhile to merge all the printing houses?
2. Is it desired that such a united printing house be granted a monopoly for ten years?
3. Is there a need to limit the import of books coming from outside the country?
4. Is it appropriate to turn over the position of censor to the professor of Hebrew in the university that was to be established in Lvov? Is it necessary to give him an assistant, etc.

There is an intention to unite the three active printing houses: that of 1) Chaim Aharon, known as “The Printer’; 2) his sister Yehudit, the widow of David Menachem Mann, and who married Rabbi Rozhans from Lvov; 3) Wolf Gershon, who is the son of Gershon Latriss. There is no point to take into account any others who are interested in a merger, as they don't have printing skills, they do not have assets, inventory, book collections or originals. As to those designated for this merger, there is no trust among the three printers because of disputes among them, and Wolf Latriss is deeply in debt beyond his capacity. The Office of the Courtyard has not given its

[Page 142]

consent to the merging of the printing houses, because this would allow a monopoly for many years for precious books, and in this manner increase imports from outside of the country. As to the printers who have taken on the responsibility to print Hebrew books, it is appropriate to grant privileges analogous to those given to the Jews. Censorship will be managed by the professor of the Lvov University, and there is a need to appoint a special assistant for him.

With this, the exchange of correspondence that had gone on for many years about this was over. Printing operations remained as they were, except for the decisions of June 4, 1782, according to which the printers from Zolkiew were required to move their printing operations to Lvov. Latriss agreed immediately. Chaim Aharon, and his brother-in-law David ben Menachem Mann, moved to Lvov after they closed their printing operations in Zolkiew.

Those printers who were operating in Lvov in 1791 were Chaim the Printer, Yehudit Rozhans who became Mann, Charna, the widow of Wolk Latriss, together with her son Gershon and Zalman Rapaport or Yehuda Zalman ben Naphtali Hertz, nicknamed Zalman Yarish Rapaport.

Charna Rapaport remained in Lvov only until the middle of 1793, because on August 3 of that year she received a privilege from the courtyard to manage her work from Zolkiew. The printing house of Yehudit Mann changed hands several times. Yehudit managed the printing house on her own after the death of her husband, and then together with her second husband, Rabbi Rozhans. After she died, the printing house passed into the hands of Rabbi Rozhans, and was managed by her son, or her stepson, Naphtali Hertz Grossman. In 1804, Rozhans requested that the Guberniya management transfer the privilege he had for printing to Grossman's name, in light of the fact that Grossman had managed this business without interruption for twelve years. The response did not arrive until Rozhans died and Grossman submitted his own request; he received his privilege from the Country Council on December 11, 1804. (vol. 22323-11477)^[3]

When Grossman died, his widow, Chava Grossman took over the management of the printing house.

Translator's footnotes

1. A Chapter from ‘Yiddishe Druckereien in Polin.’ Return
2. To be one of the Jews (generally from Spain) who were forced to formally convert to Christianity. Return
3. Author's footnote: The archive of the Interior Ministry in Vienna, IV b. vol 7 2627 by 119. Return

  Zhovkva, Ukraine     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2025 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 11 Jul 2024 by JH