Samuel Joseph Fuenn was a Russian scholar born in Vilnius, Vilna Governorate. He received the usual Talmudic education, and also acquired an extensive general knowledge of the profane sciences. In 1848 the government appointed him professor of Hebrew and Jewish history in the newly founded rabbinical school of Vilnius. Fuenn filled this position with great distinction till 1856, when he resigned. The government then appointed him superintendent of the Jewish public schools in the district of Vilnius, in which he introduced instruction in the secular sciences and modern languages. Fuenn also took an active part in the administration of the city and in its charitable institutions, and was for many years an alderman. In acknowledgment of his services the government awarded him two medals.
Works
Fuenn was a prolific writer, devoting his activity mainly to the fields of history and literature. He published the following works:
Imre Shefer, two lectures, Vilnius, 1841
Pirḥe Ẓafon, a review of history, literature, and exegesis, 2 vols., ib. 1841-44
Shenot Dor we-Dor, a chronology of Biblical history, Königsberg, 1847
Bustanai, a fictional narrative based on people from the time of the Geonim, translated from the German, ib. 1872
Ma'amar 'al ha-Hashgaḥah, a Hebrew translation of Moses Mendelssohn's Die Sache Gottes, ib. 1872
Ha-Ḥilluf, a Hebrew adaptation of Lehmann's Graf und Jude, ib. 1873
Ḥuḳḳe 'Abodat ha-Ẓaba,Russian laws relating to the conscription, ib. 1874
Ya'aḳob Tirado, a Hebrew translation of a German novel by Philippson, ib. 1874
Ha-Tefillin, a Hungarian village tale translated from the German into Hebrew, ib. 1874
Le-Toledot R. Sa'adyah Gaon, materials for the biography of Saadia, published in Ha-Karmel
Ḥakme Yisrael bi-Krim we-Gedole Yisrael be-Ṭurḳiya, biographies of Jewish scholars in the Crimea and in Turkey in the 14th and 15th centuries, published in Ha-Karmel
Safah le-Ne'emanim, an essay on the value and significance of the Hebrew language and literature in the development of culture among the Russian Jews, Vilnius, 1881
Ha-Yerushshah, Hebrew adaptation of Honigmann's Die Erbschaft, ib. 1884
, biographical lexicon of Jewish scholars and other prominent men arranged in alphabetical order, vol. i., ib. 1886-90.
For twenty-one years Fuenn directed the paper Ha-Karmel, devoted to Hebrew literature and Jewish life, with supplements in Russian and German. The paper contained many scientific articles by the leading Jewish scholars of Europe, besides numerous contributions from Fuenn's own pen.
