Should grammatically challenged writers make digs at grammatically challenged writers? An ironic sentence in an 1882 review of a "Chareidi" journal.

Henry Gersoni, an American Reform rabbi from Vilna[1], wrote many articles about all sorts of topics of Jewish interest in American periodicals, including William Rainey Harper's excellent Hebrew Student. In 1882 he wrote a short review of all the Hebrew periodicals of his time of which he was aware.

When it came to the Hungarian organ of the Ultra-Orthodox, the מחזיקי הדת, (which you can read here) he writes that it "amuses its readers with Kabbalistic hyperbole and ungrammatical Hebrew." Ironically, he adds that "the journal has existed since four years."



You can read more about the Machzikei Hadas newspaper here.

Interestingly, Gersoni is one of the first to write in English about the legendary Count Valentin Potocki in his sketch called The Converted Nobleman; a Historical Narrative. Not only that, he apparently is the one to supply a first name, as in no earlier account - whether in Polish or in English or in Hebrew - is Potocki's first name mentioned. His account will be analyzed, with some further information about the legendary Graf Walentyn Potocki, or Avraham ben Avraham Ger Zedek, martyr of Ilya or Vilna, in a future post soon.

Here is his entire article on "Periodicals in the Hebrew Tongue:"






[1] Gersoni's biography is rather interesting, and it's checkered moments will be discussed in the aforementioned upcoming post.