Stavi (Stawsky), Moses
STAVI (Stawsky), MOSES
STAVI (Stawsky ), MOSES (1884–1964), Yiddish and Hebrew writer. He was born in Antopol, Belorussia. Stavi for many years wrote in Yiddish; it was only in Ereẓ Israel, where he settled in 1911, that he gradually began to write in Hebrew. His early stories were translated into Hebrew, among them his best-known work, Lavan ha-Arami (1910), which in its Hebrew version went through many editions and remained popular for a long period. His first stories deal with the world of nature; in Ereẓ Israel his subjects also came to include the Arab village and the life of the working man.
Comprehensive collections of his stories appeared under the titles of Ha-Boker Or (1930), Sefer ha-Behemot (2 vols., 1930), Ba-Derekh le-Ereẓ ha-Osher (1954, stories and legends for old and young), and Ha-Zore'im be-Dimah (1960, village stories). In his latter years, Stavi's interest in rural life and in labor led him to research of the language of terminology used in Hebrew literature in these two fields, which resulted in two books: Pirkei Teva ve-Lashon (1958), and Geluyyot u-Setumot ba-Lashon (1961). In Ha-Kefar ha-Arvi (1946) he describes life and work in Arab villages. A list of his works translated into English appears in Goell, Bibliography, 2524–29.
bibliography:
Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 538. add. bibliography: G. Shaked, Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 2 (1983), 65–67.
[Getzel Kressel]