Joseph Massel (also Yoysef Yechezkel Mazl), born in Wjasin near Vilna, Russia, 1850;Rottenberg, Dan (1986). Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy, Genealogical Publishing Company, , p. 285. Manchester, 1912)Manchester´s Jewish Museum, accessed, 9 September 2007. was a Zionist activist, writer, Hebrew poet and translator.Sokolow, Nahum (2001). History of Zionism (1600-1918). Volume 2. Adamant Media Corporation, , p. 350.
Biography Massel emigrated from Russia to Manchester, England in 1895 where he worked as a printer.
Massel was a pioneer in the promotion of Hebrew as the national language, publishing works by Israel Cohen and Harry Sacher among others. He wrote Hebrew poems and translated English classics into Hebrew, including Milton's Samon Agonistes,Sokolow, Nahum (2001). History of Zionism (1600-1918). Volume 1. Adamant Media Corporation, , p. 41. Longfellow's Judas Maccabaeus and Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam.Bibliothèque nationale (1981).Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque nationale, p. 235.Singerman, Robert (2002). Jewish Translation History: A Bibliography of Bibliographies and Studies, John Benjamins Publishing Company, , p.302. He also spent two years preparing a unique collection of 94 portraits called A Gallery of Hebrew Poets; 1725–1903.Joseph Massel , accessed 9 September 2007.
By the time Chaim Weizmann arrived in Manchester in 1904, Massel was living in a small street of the lower end of Cheetham Hill RoadThe Gentleman's Magazine, v.302-303 (1907). January–September (where his Hebrew printing works was based)Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana (1967). Studia Rosenthaliana, Van Gorcum, p. 99. across from Red Bank and not far from the Central Synagogue. He was much part of Manchester's Zionist community and was a vice-president of the Manchester Zionist Association. At that time he was the only person Weizmann knew in Manchester.Weizmann, Chaim (1949). Trial and Error: The Autobiography of Chaim Weizmann, Harper, p. 95.
Massel attended the First Zionist Congress (Basle, 1897) and had probably met Weizmann at the Second Zionist Congress (Basle, 1898). Showing Weizmann hospitality he never forgot, Massel collected him from the train station, put him up for the night and arranged lodgings for him the next day.Rabinowicz, Oskar Kwasnik (1952). Fifty Years of Zionism. R. Anscombe, p. 61. Massel also introduced Weizmann to Charles Dreyfus.Razzūq, Asʻad (1970). Greater Israel: A Study in Zionist Expansionist Thought. Palestine Liberation Organization, Research Center, p. 120. Weizmann was later to refer to Massel as a "veritable angel" and described his Friday evening visits to the Massel household as "the highlights of my life".
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