Alexander Harkavy. Der Englisher Lehrer - The English Teacher. A Manual of the English Language.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Katzenelenbogen & Saphirstein

New York

1893

Text in Yiddish and English. Fourth revised and enlarged edition.

Singerman 4201 records a 1891 edition, noting however that the only known copy was lost.

Harkavy produced this manual of the English language for Yiddish-speaking immigrants to America. In the introduction he writes he issued this fourth edition since all copies from earlier editions were not to be found. Alexander Harkavy (1863-1939) was born in Nowogrudok (presently Belarus) and emigrated to the United States in 1882. A lexicographer and linguist, he was a champion of Yiddish in America, documenting the treasures of the language in dictionaries of great historical importance. Harkavy additionally published handbooks to assist immigrants learn English, as well as providing elements of general education, in order to adapt to American culture and take advantage of the opportunities the new world had to offer. Harkavy also provided lessons in English for American-born Jews in order for them to master Yiddish. He felt Jews should cultivate their own language with pride and devotion. Harkavy is credited for doing “more than any other man for the general education and Americanization of Jewish immigrants in the United States” and for single-handedly turning around the sometime negative American-Jewish attitude toward the Yiddish language. See D. Katz, Alexander Harkavy and his Trilingual Dictionary (1988).