Eliyahu Koren

Eliyahu Koren
Born	July 23, 1907 Nuremberg, Germany
Died	February 17, 2001 Jerusalem, Israel
Other names	Eliyahu Korngold
Occupation	Typographer, Graphic Designer
Spouse(s)	Channa Neuwirth
Website	Koren Publishers Jerusalem website

Eliyahu Koren (Hebrew: אליהו קורן; July 23, 1907 — February 17, 2001) was a master typographer and graphic artist. After studying in Nuremberg, he immigrated to Palestine in 1933. He served as head of the graphics department of Keren Kayemet, the Jewish National Fund, from 1936 to 1957. He founded Koren Publishers Jerusalem in 1961, which published the Koren Bible in 1962. He published the Koren Siddur in 1981, and various religious texts until his death.

Eliyahu Koren (né Korngold) was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He showed a rare artistic talent from an early age. After studying at the Gymnasium, Korngold attended the Kunstschule der Stadt Nurnberg, the city's School of Graphic and Applied Art, completing a six-year course of graphic art, applied art, and stained glass in three years.

In 1933, when he was an assistant to a professor at the Kunstschule, and a youth leader in the Ezra religious youth movement, Korngold read that Bavarian Jews were being required to carry special secret police travel permits to travel abroad. "I saw by this verdict divestiture of the freedom of the Jewish individual, and decided to leave Germany at the earliest possible hour," he would later recall. Korngold and a group of friends left Bavaria on April 1, 1933, and arrived in Haifa, Israel on May 15 of that year.

For six months, Korngold worked for one of the few graphic designers in Palestine at the time, Rudi Deutsch (Dayan), in Tel Aviv. Next he prepared illustrations for various books and exhibitions. From 1936 to 1957, Korngold headed the graphics department of Keren Kayemet, the Jewish National Fund, where he was responsible for graphics, publications, stamps, and the organization's Golden Book. During that time, he also designed the present coat of arms of the city of Jerusalem.

By the mid-late 1950s, Korngold had begun to work on what would become his most significant work, The Koren Bible. Korngold was committed to publishing a Hebrew Bible designed, edited, printed, and bound by Jews—something that had not been accomplished in nearly 500 years. The first printed Hebrew Bibles from Italy (1488) were printed by Jews, but after Daniel Bomberg's 1517 Venice printing, all editions up to the 20th century had non-Jewish publishers or printers, and errors had found their way into the text.

...
Wikipedia