Pines, Yechiel Michel

  General Notes:

Rabbi, author, early religious Zionist, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement, and promoter of Hebrew as a spoken language. He studied under Rabbi Mordecai Gimpel Jaffe, and also received a general education which included foreign language s and science. He moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1878 representing the London based Moses Montefiore Testimonial Fund [Mazkeret Moshe]. He helped out a goup of early settleres from Russia (the Biluim) when they were ready to give up, by purchasin g a tract of land for them, which they called Gedera. He established several Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Together with Eliezer Ben Yehuda he established the organization Tehiyyat Israel [the Israel Renaissance Society] which, among othe r things, sought to promote Hevrew as a spoken language for everyday life.

Pines was a master of Hebrew style and wrote many articles. His wiritings include: Yaldei Ruchi (1872) on the position of Israel among the nations; Ha-Hayyim ve ha-Yahadut (1873) on the relation of Judaism to the times; Torat Mishpete Togarma (18 87) which he wrote together with David Yellin; and Avodat ha-Adamah (1891) on agriculture in Eretz Israel. His sons-in-law David Yellin and Jofef Meyuhas edited his collected writings in 1934-1939. A settlement (moshav) in the Sharon plain found ed in 1933 - Kfar Pines - is named after him.

Yechiel married Chaya Tzipora (Tzipa) Luria, daughter of Shemariah Luria and Hana Mina Rivlin. (Chaya Tzipora (Tzipa) Luria was born in 1844 in Mogilev, Belarus and died on Apr 4, 1918 in Jerusalem, Israel.)