Moses Reicherson

• Name — Moses Reicherson • Born — 5 October 1827 • Birthplace — Vilnius, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire • Died — 3 April 1903 • Place of death — New York, New York, United States • Language — Hebrew

Reicherson was born in 1827 in Vilnius, where he was a childhood friend of J. L. Gordon. After studying Talmud, Hebrew, and European languages, he became a Hebrew teacher and a proofreader and editor for publishing houses. In 1890 or 1892 he emigrated to New York to be near his son, where he lived in poverty. He worked as a melamed at the Uptown Talmud Torah in Harlem, becoming its principal by 1901. Reicherson died in New York in 1903.

The literary activity of Reicherson was chiefly in the field of Hebrew grammar. He wrote: Ḥelkat ha-nikkud, on Hebrew punctuation (Vilna, 1864); Ḥelkat ha-pe'alim veha-milot, on Hebrew verbs and particles (Vilna, 1873); Yad la-nikkud, a compendium of the rules of Hebrew punctuation for beginners (appended to the prayer book Ḥinnuk tefillah; Vilna, 1880); Dikduk ḥaberim, on the elementary rules of Hebrew grammar (appended to the same prayer book; Vilna, 1883); Ma'arekhet ha-dikduk, a compendium of Hebrew grammar (Vilna, 1883; it was translated into Yiddish by its author and published in the same year); Ḥelkat ha-shem, on the Hebrew noun (Vilna, 1884); Tikkun meshalim, a translation of Krylov's Fables of the Russian writer I. A. Krylov (Vilna, 1860); and Mishle Lessing ve-sippurav, a translation of Lessing's fables (New York, 1902). Along with essays on linguistics in American and European Hebrew journals like Ner ma'aravi, Ha-pisgah, Ha-Ivri, and Ha-teḥiya, Reicherson published poetry in Joshua Mezaḥ's literary magazine Gan peraḥim. He also wrote He'arot we-tikkunim la-divan, notes on the diwan of Judah ha-Levi (Lyck, 1866). He left a number of works in manuscript, including: Dibre ḥakamim ve-ḥidotam, on Talmudic aggadot; commentaries on the Pentateuch, on the Books of Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve Prophets, Psalms, Job, and Proverbs; a prayer book, Tefillah le-Moshe; a work on Hebrew syntax; and fables, original as well as translations from Gellert.