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Joseph Chasanowitz

Dr. Yosef Hazanowitz

Yosef Hazanovich (October 22 1844 HordanaBelarus – December 21 1919 YekaterinoslavUkraine) was doctor Jewish-Zionist and bibliophile, one of the founders of "Midrash Abarbanal" (now The National Library  of Israel).

His life story

Joseph Hazanowitz (born October 22, 1844 Grodno, Belarus – died December 21, 1919 Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine). He studied medicine in Königsberg and graduated with honors as a Medical Doctor. He returned to Russia and started working as a doctor in Saint Petersburg until 1878. He then worked as a doctor in Grodno. In 1877, he married Fernia Wilbushwitz, but a few years after the wedding, his wife committed suicide. He never remarried but adopted a girl.

As of 1878, he lived in Bialystok and was a member of Hovevei Zion movement. He was a Bialystoker physician of considerable achievements and especially the physician of the poor; he took care of their illnesses and poverty and fought for their living conditions. He was a delegate in the Zionist Congresses. He transferred his immense Hebrew library to Jerusalem. The books that he contributed constituted the core for the foundation of the National Library near the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He died in 1919.

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