{{Short description|Romanian Jewish musician and historical writer}} {{Infobox writer | name=Jacob Psantir | image=Jacob_Psantir.png | image_size=225px | caption= | native_name= | native_name_lang= | pseudonym= | birth_name= | birth_date={{birth date|1820|06|06|df=y}} | birth_place=Botoșani, Moldavia | death_date={{death date and age|1901|03|22|1820|06|06|df=y}} | death_place=Bucharest, Romania | resting_place= | occupation= | language= | residence= | alma_mater= | genre= | subject= | movement= | notableworks= | spouse= | children= | awards= | years_active= }}
'''Jacob ben Asher Zelig Psantir''' ({{Langx|he|יעקב בן אשר זעליג פסנטיר}}, {{Langx|ro|Iacob Psantir}}; 6 June 1820 – 22 March 1901) was a Romanian Jewish musician and historical writer.
==Biography== Jacob Psantir came from a once-affluent Jewish Moldavian family. His father, known as "Zelig the Frenchman," worked as an interpreter for Scarlat Callimachi, and later for the French consulate in Iași.{{r|bratulescu}}{{r|yivo}}
Psantir was orphaned at age 11, and received little formal education.{{r|EJ}} Still, from his childhood he devoted himself to the study of music. He became a ''klezmer'' at age 13, and joined a Romani orchestra as a ''Lăutar''. Psantir founded in Fălticeni a band of traveling Jewish and Romani musicians, with whom he performed across the Romanian Principalities, Bulgaria, Turkey, Crimea, and Bessarabia.{{r|oisteanu}}
During these years, he began to write a history of his family, but as he proceeded with it his ambition moved him to enlarge the scope of his work until it finally embraced the history of the Jews of Romania. For five years, though possessing very limited means, he traveled throughout Romania, visiting the cemeteries and studying the communal documents. The results of his labors were published in two works entitled ''Divre ha-Yamim la-Artzot Rumenye'' (Iași, 1871) and ''Korot ha-Yehudim be-Rumenye'' (Lemberg, 1873).{{r|EJ}} In the former, Psantir claims the existence of a Jewish presence in Dacia from as early as the 6th century BC.{{r|yivo}} A Romanian edition of both works was published at Bucharest in 1877.
In 1875, Psantir published a memoir, entitled ''Sefer Zikhroynes'' (1875). He was the author also of ''Ha-Savlanut ha-Datit be-Romania'', on religious tolerance in Romania, and ''Ha-Kosem'' ({{Langx|ro|Fermecătorul}}), on popular magic.{{r|barbulescu_ciucu}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book|title=Divre ha-yamim la-artzot Rumenye|trans-title=Chronicles of the Lands of Romania|lang=yi|year=1871|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwxxlf&view=1up&seq=1|location=Iași|publisher=Defus Hersh Goldner}} * {{cite book|title=Korot ha-Yehudim be-Rumenye|trans-title=History of the Jews in Romania|year=1873|lang=yi|location=Lemberg}} * {{cite book|title=Sefer Zikhroynes|trans-title=Memoirs|year=1875|lang=yi}} * {{cite book|title=Mazkereth Zion (Andenken Zions. Ein Euszug aus den in polnischen Jargon schön gedrückten Werkehen: Chronik und Rumänische Judengeschichte)|trans-title=Memory of Zion|translator-first=Adolf Manuel|translator-last=Weitzenberg|lang=de|location=Bucharest|date=1877|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnELAQAAIAAJ|publisher=Buchdruckerei von Thiel & Weiss}} * {{cite book|title=Fermecătorul. Arătarea înşelătoriei ce Mi se pare au săvârşit fermecătorii şi ghicitorii de la început până în zilele noastre|lang=ro|trans-title=The Charmer|location=Craiova|publisher=Philip Lasăr|year=1886}} Introduction by Moses Gaster. * {{cite book|title=Ha-Savlanut ha-Datit be-Romania|type=Unpublished}}
==References== {{Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Psantir, Jacob ben Zelig|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12413-psantir-jacob-ben-zelig|first1=Isidore|last1=Singer|first2=Isaac|last2=Broydé|volume=10|page=251}} {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=oisteanu>{{cite book | last=Oișteanu | first=Andrei|author-link=Andrei Oișteanu|translator-first=Mirela|translator-last=Adăscăliţei | title=Inventing the Jew: Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central-East European Cultures | publisher=University of Nebraska Press | location=Lincoln| year=2009 | isbn=978-0-8032-2461-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBHwUOPyszAC&pg=PA171| pages=171–172}}</ref> <ref name=bratulescu>{{cite journal|last=Bratulescu|first=Monica|year=1993|title=A Critical Approach to the Writings of Jacob Psantir|journal=Shvut|volume=16|pages=219–233}}</ref> <ref name=EJ>{{cite EJ|title=Psantir, Jacob|first=Isac|last=Beercovici|volume= |page= |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/psantir-jacob}}</ref> <ref name=yivo>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Psantir, Iacob|first=Măriuca|last=Stanciu|translator-first=Anca|translator-last=Mircea|url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Psantir_Iacob|encyclopedia=YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe|editor-first=Gershon|editor-last=Hundert|editor-link=Gershon Hundert|location=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008}}</ref> <ref name=barbulescu_ciucu>{{cite journal | last1=Barbulescu | first1=Ana | last2=Ciucu | first2=Cristina | title=Les études juives en Roumanie | journal=Yod |volume=14 | date=2009 | issue=14 | issn=0338-9316 | doi=10.4000/yod.124 | pages=341–357 | language=fr| doi-access=free }}</ref> }}
{{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Psantir, Jacob}} Category:1820 births Category:1901 deaths Category:Jewish historians Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism Category:Jewish Romanian writers Category:Jews from Western Moldavia Category:19th-century Romanian historians Category:Romanian historians of religion Category:19th-century Romanian Jews Category:Klezmer musicians Category:19th-century Romanian male musicians Category:People from Botoșani Category:Lăutari and lăutărească music