Bracha Peli
Peli, 1940s
Born
Bronya Kutzenok

1892
Kiev
Died1986
Israel
OccupationPublisher
Known forHebrew Book Week
SpouseMeir Pilipovetsky (Peli)
ChildrenAlexander Peli and daughter

Bracha Peli (Hebrew: ברכה פלאי) (1892–1986) was the founder and owner of the Israeli publishing house, Massada. She was the driving force behind the publication of Encyclopaedia Hebraica,[1] and is credited with starting Israel's annual Hebrew Book Week.[2]

Biography

Bronya Kutzenok (later Bracha Peli) was born in Starovitzky, a small village in Russia, now Ukraine[3] to a family of Hasidic Jews. She was the eldest of seven children. Her father, Shmuel Kutzenok, was a wealthy lumber merchant who supplied timber for artillery wagons to the Russian army. Her mother, Sarah, ran the village general store. She acquired an education by overhearing her brothers' lessons.[3] Early on, she became proficient in Yiddish, Russian and Hebrew. In 1905, when she was about to study at a Gymnasium in Kiev, pogroms against the Jews erupted, disrupting her plans. She waited two years to complete her secondary education and study economics.[3]

In 1914, after her mother died of tuberculosis, Peli met a young Zionist teacher, Meir Pilipovetsky, whom she married against her family's wishes. After her son, Alexander, was born she opened a Jewish secondary school that attracted 400 students in its first year.[3]

Encyclopedia Hebraica

In July 1921, Peli and her husband left Russia for Palestine, settling in Tel Aviv.[3] In 1926, Peli opened a stall in Tel Aviv to sell books cheaply, which led to the inauguration of an annual event.[2] Today Hebrew Book Week is a national 10-day event.[4] The Encyclopaedia Hebraica project began using Bracha Peli's publishing house in 1946 with her son, Alexander, supervising. The last volume was published in 1996.[3]

Bracha Peli died in 1986.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Founder of the Hebrew Enterprise, Uri Dromi, accessed October 2009
  2. 1 2 Hebrew Book Week :from an open, urban fair into an entertainment festival Archived October 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Shiri Lev-Ari, Jewish Theatre, accessed October 2009
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bracha Peli, Asher Weill, Jewish Women's Archive. accessed October 2009
  4. ↑ Israel - Book Production Data Economic situation Archived 2009-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, Frankfurt Book Fair, accessed October 2009
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