Israel ben Benjamin of Belzec
ISRAEL BEN BENJAMIN OF BELZEC
ISRAEL BEN BENJAMIN OF BELZEC (17th century), rabbi and author. Israel was rabbi in Rubashov, Belzec (c. 1648), and Lublin (c. 1648–50) and was regarded as one of the foremost talmudists of his time. He was the author of Yalkut Ḥadash (Yalkut Yisre'eli), an alphabetically arranged collection of homilies taken from diverse kabbalistic, aggadic, and midrashic works (published anonymously, Lublin, 1648, and later with an appendix entitled Shikhḥat Leket, Wilmersdorf, 1673); and Tiferet Yisrael, a collection of sermons delivered between 1632 and 1654 (Ms. Bodleian), including a funeral oration delivered in 1648 for the victims of the *Chmielnicki massacres. According to Jehiel *Heilperin, Israel was also called Jacob, but he should not be confused with Jacob Israels of Temesvár, rabbi of Slutsk, who was a victim of the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648.
bibliography:
Heilperin, Dorot, 3 (1905), 54; Fuenn, Keneset, 683; S. Nissenbaum, Le-Korot ha-Yehudim be-Lublin (1899), 54; S. Wiener, Kohelet Moshe (1893–1918), 591 (no. 4825); Neubauer, Cat, nos. 924, 989.
[Joseph Elijah Heller]