Avraham Moshe Luntz & Dvora nee Ritevsky

Abraham Moshe Luntz, born in Lithuania, was a writer, publisher, journalist and researcher of Eretz Yisrael in addition to being a geographer of Eretz Yisrael. He was an only son to Hana and Zvi Hirsch Luntz born in December 1854 (first day of Hanuka 5614) in the city of Kovna, Lithuania. His father, Zvi Hirsch, was a rabbi and his mother Hana was a merchant. In 1869, Abraham came on Aliya with his parents. His mother had made a vow that her son would come to Eretz Yisrael in time for his bar mitzvah. The first attempt in 1867 failed. The carriage that took the family got stuck in the marshes and the passengers had to return to Kovna. The fact that the family was saved was seen as a miracle and thus a sign that they should try again which they did in 1869 and managed to reach Jaffa in that year. As an excellent pupil Avraham Moshe was accepted at the “Etz Haim” yeshiva in Jerusalem. Afterwards, together with Yisrael Dov Frumkin they founded the Montefiore library which was the first public library which existed in Jerusalem ( a library that soon closed). In 1873 he began to publish articles in the newspaper of Frumkin, “Hahavzelet” in which he criticized the “Haluka”=distribution of funds to the poor and of the “Gabbaim”=functionaires who ran the fund. Despite the above he supported the Jerusalem communities against the attacks made by the historian Gratz. After having written a number of articles on geography Luntz wrote his book “Paths of Zion and Jerusalem”, the first guide to Jerusalem in Hebrew. From then on till the end of his life he continued his research on the geography of Eretz Yisrael, and in order to further his research used Christian libraries, which was not very common at that time. Luntz was also a member of the Hebrew Language Society and founded the “Institute for the Blind” in Jerusalem. His vision began to fail when he was only 23 so he travelled to Vienna and Paris for a cure but to no avail. He became blind two years later in 1879. His blindness did not prevent him from further research of Eretz Yisrael. With the help of Peretz Smolenskin (Hebrew writer and publicist and one of the heads of “Hibat Zion”=Lovers of Zion) Luntz published the first volume of “Jerusalem-yearbook on Eretz Israel“ in 1882. He continued to work on this yearbook till his dying day. He managed to publish 12 volumes of the yearbook which were printed in Jerusalem at the printing press of Luntz, which was located from 1900 in the neighborhood of “Ezrat Yisrael”, corner of Jaffa Rd. From 1895 till 1915 he also published the “Calendar of Eretz Yisrael” which was a kind of literary almanac. In addition, he edited the first song collection, “Violin of Zion” which had 50 national folk songs dealing with Eretz Yisrael and the yearnings to return. With the publication of the song collection he was brought to trial at the Ottoman Court for inciting rebellion and he was fined, his books were confiscated and his printing press which he owned was closed. Avraham Moshe Luntz wrote and published the first travel guide for tourists to Eretz Yisrael. The guide which was published more than a hundred years ago, was part of the work of a lifetime, of a man who was dedicated to fulfill his goal and was not put off even when he lost his sight. Moshe Avraham Luntz married Dvora Ritevsky, born in 1856 and the couple had four children: Yaakov (1880), Sara later Buknitz (1882), Hana, later Bulatin (1892), and Mattityahu (1894). Moshe Avraham Luntz passed away on 2 Iyar 5678, April 1918 at the age of 63. He was buried in the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Yakov Luntz (later Asia) and the first born son of Avraham Moshe and Dvora, left for Paris at the age of 15 to study for the rabbinate with Rabbi Zadok Kahn. Afterwards, he studied medicine and became a Gynecologist. He had a private hospital in Paris. He served as a medical officer in the French army. Before World War II he intended to come on Aliya and lived with his brother Matityahu in Haifa, who was the head of a Bank Leumi branch in that city. The day before he intended to move to Jerusalem, the Arabs burned warehouses in the port of Haifa and all his possessions were burned except for a number of bronze statues. This tragedy altered his plans to build a home and a private clinic in Jerusalem. He rented an apartment on Bezalel St in the Harris building. He could not work as a doctor since he did not have a local medical license. Despite this, many of Jerusalem’s residents came to him for advice, amongst them Prof. Mazar who became the doctor of the Luntz family. In Palestine, he became interested in the writings of his late father and translated into Hebrew the book of Miriam Harry “Little Daughter of Jerusalem”. Dvora Kobovy edited the Hebrew which was somewhat archaic. He took the name Asia and passed away in 1956. The mother Dvora Luntz nee Ritevsky died in 1919 (12 Iyar 5679) Read more