Bracha Peli

{{Short description|Israeli publisher (1892–1986)}} {{Infobox person | name = Bracha Peli | image = Bracha Peli.jpg | image_size = | caption = Peli, 1940s | native_name = ברכה פלאי | birth_name = Bronya Kutzenok | birth_date = 1892 | birth_place = Kiev | death_date = 1986 | death_place = Israel | body_discovered = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | nationality = | citizenship = | native_name_lang = he | other_names = | known_for = Hebrew Book Week | education = | alma_mater = | employer = | occupation = Publisher | years_active = | height = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = Meir Pilipovetsky (Peli) | partner = | children = Alexander Peli and daughter | parents = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Bracha Peli''' ({{langx|he|ברכה פלאי}}; 1892–1986) was the founder and owner of the Israeli publishing house, Massada. She was the driving force behind the publication of ''Encyclopaedia Hebraica'',<ref name=obit>Founder of the Hebrew Enterprise, Uri Dromi, accessed October 2009</ref> and is credited with starting Israel's annual Hebrew Book Week.<ref name=book/>

==Biography== Bronya Kutzenok (later Bracha Peli) was born in Starovitzky, a small village in Russia, now Ukraine<ref name=bracha>[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/peli-bracha Bracha Peli], Asher Weill, Jewish Women's Archive. accessed October 2009</ref> to a family of Hasidic Jews. She was the eldest of seven children. Her father, Shmuel Kutzenok, was a wealthy lumber merchant who supplied timber for artillery wagons to the Russian army. Her mother, Sarah, ran the village general store. She acquired an education by overhearing her brothers' lessons.<ref name="bracha"/> Early on, she became proficient in Yiddish, Russian and Hebrew. In 1905, when she was about to study at a Gymnasium in Kiev, pogroms against the Jews erupted, disrupting her plans. She waited two years to complete her secondary education and study economics.<ref name=bracha/>

In 1914, after her mother died of tuberculosis, Peli met a young Zionist teacher, Meir Pilipovetsky, whom she married against her family's wishes. After her son, Alexander, was born she opened a Jewish secondary school that attracted 400 students in its first year.<ref name=bracha/> thumb|Encyclopedia Hebraica In July 1921, Peli and her husband left Russia for Palestine, settling in Tel Aviv.<ref name=bracha/> In 1926, Peli opened a stall in Tel Aviv to sell books cheaply, which led to the inauguration of an annual event.<ref name=book>[http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=700 Hebrew Book Week :from an open, urban fair into an entertainment festival] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031111846/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=700 |date=October 31, 2007 }}, Shiri Lev-Ari, Jewish Theatre, accessed October 2009</ref>

In 1930, she started publishing the books "Masada" in her home. In 1932, she officially founded the publishing house on Herzl Street in Tel Aviv and founded the Palai Press, where the publishing house's books were printed. The first project produced by the publishing house was "The General Encyclopedia" edited by Prof. Yosef Klausner. Other multi-volume projects were the Bible with S.L. Gordon's commentary, a history of music in Europe, the encyclopedia of psychology, "Encyclopedia Mesada" in five volumes, an encyclopedia of culture, an encyclopedia of culture and the world of culture originally translated from Italian (Fabri Publishing) and an encyclopedia for youth "Aviv".

Today Hebrew Book Week is a national 10-day event.<ref>[http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com/en/networking/search_find/book_markets/asia//israel/00023/ Israel - Book Production Data Economic situation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010103805/http://www.frankfurt-book-fair.com/en/networking/search_find/book_markets/asia/israel/00023/ |date=2009-10-10 }}, Frankfurt Book Fair, accessed October 2009</ref> The Encyclopaedia Hebraica project began using Bracha Peli's publishing house in 1946 with her son, Alexander, supervising. The last volume was published in 1996.<ref name="bracha" />

Bracha Peli died in 1986.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

==See also== *Hebrew literature

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peli, Bracha}} Category:1892 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Encyclopedists Category:Israeli women chief executive officers Category:Israeli chief executives Category:Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Category:Israeli publishers (people) Category:20th-century Israeli businesswomen Category:20th-century Israeli businesspeople Category:Naturalized citizens of Israel Category:Businesspeople from Kyiv Category:Businesspeople from Tel Aviv Category:Ukrainian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Category:Ukrainian Ashkenazi Jews Category:Ukrainian schoolteachers Category:Ukrainian Zionists Category:Jewish encyclopedists