FEINSTEIN, ARYEH LÖB:
Russian scholar; born at Damachev, near Brest-Litovsk, Dec. 6, 1821; died there Jan. 20, 1903. Feinstein studied the Talmud for many years, and afterward accepted the position of foreman with a firm at Brest. In his commercial transactions with Christian merchants Feinstein acquired a knowledge of languages, and he also studied the secular sciences. Later he established a business of his own and succeeded in amassing a large fortune.
Feinstein has always taken a great interest in theaffairs of the Jewish community; and has been for many years its parnas.
He is the author of the following works: "Elef ha-Magen," a commentary on the Haggadah of Passover, Warsaw, 1870; "'Ir Tehillah," a history of the Jewish community of Brest-Litovsk (in collaboration with Abraham Marcus Finkelstein), ib. 1886. The latter work, although not always reliable because of its neglect of critical investigation into the material at hand, contains some valuable contributions to the history of the Lithuanian Jews in general and of those of Brest-Litovsk in particular.
- Eisenstadt, Dor Rabbanaw we-Soferaw, p. 54, Warsaw, 1895;
- Zeitlin, Bibl. Post-Mendels. p. 83.
