BIKKUREI HA-ITTIM

BIKKUREI HA-ITTIM (Heb. בִּכּוּרֵי הָעִתִּים; "First Fruits of the Times"), Hebrew literary-scientific annuals, published in Vienna for 12 successive years (1821–32), and a central forum for *Haskalah literature. The editor of the first three volumes, Shalom b. Jacob *Cohen, sought to continue in this publication the tradition of Ha-Me'assef, the journal which initiated Hebrew periodical publications in the Haskalah period. (He had previously published and edited the last three volumes of Ha-Me'assef he-Ḥadash.) The first volumes also contained a German section (transcribed in Hebrew letters), which was later discontinued. The editors following Cohen were: Moses *Landau (vols. 4–5), Solomon Pergamenter (vol. 6), Issachar Baer Schlesinger (vols. 7–8), Isaac Samuel *Reggio (vols. 9–10), and Judah Loeb *Jeiteles (vols. 11–12). All the various literary genres were represented in these volumes – e.g., fiction, research, as well as translations of world literature (but mainly from German) – and were contributed by writers from Italy, Bohemia, Austria, Galicia, and Hungary. Reprints of a selection of works from Ha-Me'assef were also included. The standard improved in the last volumes, especially with S.J. *Rapoport's publication of his biographical monographs on geonic medieval Jewish scholars and authors. Other contributors included S.D. *Luzzatto and Isaac *Erter. With the discontinuation of these annuals, M.E. *Stern attempted in 1844 to publish Bikkurei ha-Ittim, and Reggio together with Isidore *Bush, Bikkurei ha-Ittim ha-Ḥadashim in 1845. While these attempts were unsuccessful, another annual, Kokhevei Yiẓḥak, did succeed. Its publication began in 1845 in Vienna, under the editorship of M.E. Stern, and lasted until 1873.

bibliography:

B. Wachstein, Die hebraeische Publizistik in Wien (1930), xiii–xl (introduction); R. Fahn, Kitvei Re'uven Fahn, 2 (1937), 100–41 (Pirkei Haskalah).

[Getzel Kressel]