Ze'ev Yavetz

Ze'ev (Wolf) Yavetz (Jawitz, Javetz) (, 26 September 1847 – 24 January 1924) was a Jewish historian, teacher and Hebrew linguist.

Biography Ze'ev (Wolf) Yavetz was born in Kolno in the Russian Empire (today in Poland). He published his first historical article in HaShahar, a Hebrew monthly published by Peretz Smolenskin.

In 1887, at the age of 40, he immigrated to Ottoman Palestine. He initially worked in a vineyard in the Yehud moshava, before being recruited by Edmond James de Rothschild to be headmaster of a school in Zikhron Ya'akov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund.

Yavetz was a member of the Hebrew Language Committee, and coined several modern Hebrew words, including tarbut (culture) and kvish (road).

Yavetz used the Bible in a new thematic and stylistic manner with the object of reviving ancient ways of life. He has been called a "proto-Orientalist."

In his later years he moved to England, where he completed his 14-volume history of the Jews entitled Toldot Yisrael. He died in London in 1924.

A moshav in Israel, Kfar Yavetz, is named after him.