Semiatitsch, Gedaliah

Lithuanian Talmudist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was one of the Ḥasidic party which in 1700 made a pilgrimage to Palestine under the leadership of Judah Ḥasid. In his work "Sha'alu Shelom Yerushalayim" (Berlin, 1716) Semiatitsch gives a full description of this pilgrimage, including the adventures of the party and the death of Judah Ḥasid. He adds an account of the history and a description of the ruins of Jerusalem as well as a list of the sepulchers of the Holy Land, the narrative being followed by some dirges.

Bibliography:

  * Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 554, No. 18;
  * Füirst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 313;
  * Orient, Lit. xii. 297;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1003;
  * Zunz, G. S. i. 193.



J. M. Sel.