Abraham Mordechai Piurko (Yiddish: אברהם מרדכי פּיורקאָ, romanized: Avraham Mordekhai Piyurko; 15 February 1853 – 11 June 1933) was a Hebrew-language author, children's writer, publisher, and educator.
Piurko was born to a Jewish family in Lomza, Poland. After having studied Talmud and rabbinics, he devoted himself to modern Hebrew literature, publishing successively: Bat Yiftaḥ (Lyck, 1873), a Biblical poem; Reʿuyim ha-devarim le-mi she-omrim (Warsaw, 1880), criticisms on Biblical and Talmudical legends; Sefer mikhtavim ha-shalem (Warsaw, 1882), a Hebrew letter-writer, containing 150 specimens of letters on different subjects;[1]Nitʻe naʻamanim (Warsaw, 1884), 100 stories for the young; Kur ha-mivḥan (Warsaw, 1887), a book for teachers, containing a Biblical catechism; and Haskalah medumah (Warsaw, 1888), a sketch of Jewish life.[2][3]
In 1893 Piurko published eleven stories for children, two of which were written by his son Ḥayyim, and in 1894 Shevet sofer ha-shalem, a new letter-writer, also containing 150 specimens. In the same year he published Yilkut ha-reʻim, a grammatical work in verse, and issued a new and revised edition of his Nitʻe naʻamanim. Elef ha-magen, a grammar for school courses, was published in 1898.[2][3]
In 1899 Piurko began the publication of the weekly periodical Gan sha'ashu'im, the first Hebrew children's newspaper outside Palestine.[4] Besides numerous articles by him, two of his works deserving special mention were published in the newspaper, namely, Av le-banim (1899) and Ha-rav ve-talmidav (1900). The latter work consists of essays on grammar. In addition, Piurko contributed to many Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals in Odessa, Saint Petersburg, and Warsaw.[4]
Publications
Bat Yiftaḥ. Lyck: Druck von Rudolph Siebert. 1873.
^ abZeitlin, William (1891). "Pjurko, Abraham Marcus". Bibliotheca hebraica post-Mendelssohniana (in German). Vol. 1. Leipzig: K. F. Koehler's Antiquarium. p. 270. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
