Hausdorf, Azriel Zelig
HAUSDORF, AZRIEL ZELIG
HAUSDORF, AZRIEL ZELIG (1823–1905), a precursor of the *Ḥibbat Zion movement and pioneer of Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel. Born in Myslowice, Silesia, Hausdorf attended a yeshivah until the age of 20, when he went to London. He left in 1847, to settle in Jerusalem. He was a translator and expert on Jewish subjects for the Austrian consul and also represented the Jews at the Prussian consulate. He thus helped to protect the rights of refugees from Russia and Poland who did not enjoy the protection of a foreign power. When Baron Gustave de *Rothschild visited Ereẓ Israel, Hausdorf assisted him in founding the Misgav la-Dakh Hospital in the Old City of Jerusalem. He was a founder of the Ḥevrat Ahavat Zion, formed by members of Kolel Hod (Holland-Deutschland community), which bought a plot of land in the vicinity of the Temple Mount (1858), in order to found the Battei Maḥaseh quarter for the poor. The kolel sent him to Holland and Germany, where he acquired the support of Ẓevi Hirsch *Kalischer. He helped to acquire various plots of lands (near Jaffa and at Moẓa).
bibliography:
E. Hausdorf, Zelig Hausdorf u-Fe'ulotav le-Hatavat ve-Haramat Maẓẓav Eḥav (1905); P. Grajewsky, Zikkaron la-Ḥovevim ha-Rishonim, 1 (1927), 24–26; 2 (1929), 45–47; Yaari, Sheluḥei, 805–7; Eliav, in: Sinai, 61 (1967), 298–315.
[Geulah Bat Yehuda (Raphael)]