Masie, Aaron Meir
MASIE, AARON MEIR
MASIE, AARON MEIR (1858–1930), physician. Born near Mogilev, Belorussia, Masie studied at the yeshivah in Mir and moved to Berlin in 1878, where he joined the Union of Hebrew Socialists, founded by Aaron *Liebermann. In 1879 he was sentenced to a term in prison together with his comrades. Set free, he went to Zurich where he attended the Institute of Technology and came under the influence of Russian socialists, leading to his activity in the student revolutionary movement. Deeply affected by the 1881 pogroms, Masie actively supported the idea of a Jewish state. He joined the Jewish nationalist movement, and decided to study medicine so that he might have a profession which would be useful in Ereẓ Israel. Graduating in 1887, he went to Paris where he specialized in ophthalmology, and in 1888 he settled in Rishon le Zion. There he was appointed medical officer for the Rothschild settlements in Ereẓ Israel.
From 1900, he lived in Jerusalem where he was active in medicine and in various cultural spheres. He was mainly interested in the revival of Hebrew and saw his life task in the development of a Hebrew terminology in medicine and in the natural sciences. A member of the Va'ad ha-Lashon, he advised Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda in medical terminology. He published a monograph, Mahalat ha-Shivtah ("Meningitis," 1910), and articles in Ha-Zefirah, Ha-Or, Ha-Refu'ah (vol. 2, 1923), and Leshonenu (vols. 1 and 2, 1928–30). Masie's dictionary of medical terms, Sefer ha-Munahim li-Refu'ah u-le-Madda'ei ha-Teva, was completed by S. *Tchernichowsky and published posthumously in 1934.
bibliography:
Slouschz, in: Koveẓ ha-Ḥevrah ha-Ivrit la-Ḥakirat Ereẓ Yisrael ve-Attikoteha, 3 (1935), 5–24 (incl. bibl.); Sefer ha-Yovel… Petaḥ Tikvah (1929), 433–43; M. Smilansky, Mishpaḥat ha-Adamah, 3 (19512), 106–17; J. Saphir, Ḥalutzei ha-Teḥiyyah (1930), 50–55; Munker, in: ks, 12 (1935/36), 19–28, no. 70.
[Joseph Gedaliah Klausner]