Jacob Meyer Levy (Hebrew: יעקב מאיר לוי Ya'akov Me'ir Levi; May 14, 1894 – September 8, 1956) was an Israeli educator, historian, translator and writer.
Biography
Born to Moshe Levy and Masia-Leah (nee Barmack) in the Ukrainian village of Nesolon (then in the Russian Empire). There were only 3-4 Jewish families among the village's 700 or so residents. Jacob's family was quite religious and he was tutored in Jewish studies by private teachers who were brought to the village by his father. He was considered a prodigy and at the early age of 12 he was studying at the Novograd-Volynsky Yeshiva (usually attended by much older students) with the expectation of becoming a rabbi. But the outside world attracted him. Because of the restrictions imposed by the authorities on the admission of Jews into universities, he began external studies that were popular among young Jews who were influenced by the Jewish Enlightenment movement of the 18th-19th century. As a result, he became a Zionist and a socialist, and in 1914, at the age of 20, he left his family and with their support immigrated to Eretz Israel (Ottoman Palestine.) and turned his back on his religious upbringing.
Upon his arrival in Tel Aviv he enrolled in the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, where he studied for two years (grades X and XI). As a student, he could stay in Eretz Israel without becoming an Ottoman citizen and, even though he spoke Hebrew, he no doubt wanted to absorb the day-to-day spoken Hebrew of the period. It was at that time that he started writing and as a result attracted the attention of his Hebrew literature teacher - the acclaimed writer Y.H. Brenner, who foresaw in him a future as a writer.
When World War I broke out, the Ottoman government changed its policy toward foreign nationals, and especially toward the Jews among them. The Capitulations were canceled and foreign nationals were faced with a choice: obtaining Ottoman citizenship and serve in the Sultan's army or being deported to their home countries. As an ardent Zionist and because of his hatred of the Russian Empire, Jacob had an easy time making a decision, and towards the end of the 1916 school year, immediately after receiving his Turkish citizenship, he was drafted into the Ottoman army and sent, along with many of his class, to officers training in Constantinople (Istanbul).
In 1917 he spent time teaching Hebrew at the Jewish settlement Mesilla Hadasha near Constantinople which was built by the Baron Morris Hirsch as a transit station for the Jewish pioneers from Russia on their way to Eretz Israel, where they received initial training in agriculture. As WWI cut off postal services in Europe, Jacob lost contact with his family, Concerned for their safety, he returned to Ukraine at the end of the war to see his parents. 1919 was a year of many pogroms in Ukraine, in addition to the forced conscription of young men into the Ukrainian Nationalist Army that attempted to keep the country independent of the Soviet Union. Fearing the latter, Jacob spent only a short while with his family and continued to the city of Korets that was then under Polish rule, where he ran a Hebrew school in the summer of 1919. Meir Panas, a student at the school, wrote about the influence that Jacob had:
″Jacob Levy brought with him a fresh essence from the fields and the Galilee. He instilled [in the students] the living Hebrew of Eretz Israel. He brought with him Hebrew terminology for the natural sciences and general studies. To truly appreciate [his] contribution, one needs to remember that there were hardly any Hebrew textbooks for these subjects in Russia at the time.″
Panas also described Levy’s other activities:
″Jacob, who deeply believed in the kibbutz ideals, was very enthusiastic about the Bolshevik revolution, truly believing that it will make these ideals universally accepted. Therefore, when the Communist party took control of Korets, they appointed him the deputy head of the revolutionary administration. The Bolsheviks so admired his talents and knowledge that he was effectively running it. Because of that respect, the Bolsheviks didn’t close his school down as they did others and Jacob continued as its headmaster.″''