Zechariah Elefant (; ; ; February 11, 1886 – June 1957) was a Hungarian-American Rabbi, writer, publisher, and bookseller.
Early life and education Elefant was born February 11, 1886 in Kárász, Austria-Hungary (present-day Hungary) to the Rabbi and Bava Elefant (). Elefant was the brother of Rabbi and Mendel Elefant, a Yiddish-language poet, writer, editor and journalist.
As a young man he studied at the Yeshiva of Siget and the Pressburg Yeshiva.
Career In 1923, he emigrated to New York City with his wife and three children. In New York, he served as rabbi of a synagogue. Later he opened a bookstore on Canal Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he sold "rare manuscripts and published works" Rabbi Yitzchak Glick wrote at: Binyamin Wolf Leow, Shaarei Torah, Part 4, Volume 1, Page 11: "לזכר עולם ולעי"נ הרבני הגדול בתורה מוה"ר זכרי' עלעפאנט ז"ל ובנו הרה"ח מו"ה חיים אלי' ז"ל נפט' כ"ג אייר תשל"א , אשר הצילו ושמרו על כתבי היד של רבינו, ומהם זכיתי והגיעו לרשותי" (English Translation: "In memory of the great Rabbi Zechariah Elefant z"l and his son... who saved and preserved this Rabbi's manuscripts, and from them I had the honor of receiving the manuscript of this volume (in order to print it) as well as Torah scrolls.See, for example, the advertisement of "Zechariah Elefant books" in the following source: המאור, שנה ג, חוברת ו (ב) (אדר ה'תשי"ב), עמ' 29; and the following advertisement as "Publisher of books and rare manuscripts" at: המאור, שנה א, חוברת ב (ניסן ה'תש"י), עמ' 21
In 1938 he and his father published the book "Ein Habedolach" by Rabbi Chaim Zvi Menheimer, who was his father's teacher. After the death of his father, he published another book, "Ein Habadolach on the Talmud", in 1944.
The National Library of Israel has two manuscripts with his signature from his private library.See: Rav Aharon Kutna - Glossary on the Talmud" his stamp appears at page 131, as well as the following volume: Rav Aharon Kutna - Glossary on the Talmud"
Personal life
A few years before the World War I, he married Sarah (née Kahane), a Polish citizen.
Elefant died in New York in June 1957.
References
External links Ein Habedolach 1944, preface detailing his life's story up to then (in Hebrew). Sources quoting Rabbi Elefant: Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Grienwald, Kol Bo on Mourning, Vol. 1, New York 1947, p. 380 (in Hebrew). Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Grienwald, Kol Bo on Mourning, Vol. 2, Brooklyn 1951, p. 147 (in Hebrew). Dr. Yohanan Cohen-Yashar, "ספר חדש של פרופ׳ נהר על המהר״ל", Hamaayan (Tishrei 5727, 1966), Vol. 7, Issue 1, p. 78, item 74a (in Hebrew).