PASCHELES, WOLF

PASCHELES, WOLF (Ze'ev ; 1814–1857), author, publisher, and bookseller. Born in Prague, Pascheles published – while in his teens – Deutsche Gebete fuer Frauen (1828) of which several editions appeared under various titles. With the money earned on the first edition, he opened the first Jewish bookstore in Prague.

He wrote a biography of Solomon *Heine together with one of the Viennese merchant Herrmann Tedesco (1845). In 1857 he edited and published E. Bondi's Mikhtevei Sefat Kodesh, a Hebrew chrestomathy (including biographies of famous Jews) with interlinear German translation. Pascheles' greatest successes were his collections of legends and biographies, medieval and modern, under the title Sippurim (1846/47) which went through many editions. Among the contributors were I.M. *Jost, Solomon Kohn, R.J. Fuerstenthal, and S.J. *Kaempf. A popular edition was published (1888, 1909³) by his son-in-law Jacob Brandeis. Adaptations of the Sippurim were prepared by S. Schmitz (1921, 1926) and H. Pollitzer (Die goldene Gasse, 1937) as well as a selection and translation into English by C. Field (Jewish Legends…, n.d.). Pascheles' miniature Pentateuch, with German translation by H. *Arnheim, and his Illustrierter israelitischer Volkskalender, which appeared from 1860 to 1935, was also popular. He also published a popular series called Juedische Universal-Bibliothek, which included works on Jewish history, biographies, and contemporary events. After Pascheles' death these were edited by his son Jacob and his son-in-law, J. Brandeis, who continued the book-selling and publishing firm (catalogs appeared 1879–94).

bibliography:

Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, New York, Jews of Czechoslovakia, 1 (1968), 341, 533.