Zeev (name)

Translated from Hebrew as a wolf . For the first time, the name Zeev (in the synodal translation : Ziv) is found in the Tanach ( Old Testament ) in the Book of Judges of Israel as the name of one of the Midian princes killed on behalf of Gideon ^[1] . At the same time, the name Zeev (often combined: Benjamin Zeev) spread not because of this negative character, but because the son of the patriarch Jacob Benjamin (Binyamin) was compared to a wolf in Genesis ^[2] :

“Benjamin, the carnivorous wolf, will eat the prey in the morning and will divide the prey in the evening” ^[3] .

Original text (Hebrew)

בִּנְיָמִין זְאֵב יִטְרָף בַּבֹּקֶר יֹאכַל עַד וְלָעֶרֶב יְחַלֵּק שָׁלָל

Among Ashkenazi Jews, the name Zeev was also used due to the analogy with the name Wolf ( Yiddish װאָלףֿ Wolf ), sometimes used as a replacement for the name Wolf in rabbinical and ceremonial recordings.

• Yiddish : װאָלףֿ (Wolf)
• German: Wolf (Wolf)

• Zavik, Zevik

• Theodor Herzl ; in Hebrew, Benjamin Zeev Herzl (1860-1904) - Jewish public and political figure, founder of the World Zionist Organization , forerunner of the Jewish state and founder of the ideology of political Zionism. He was a journalist, writer, doctor of law.
• Zeev (Wolf Evnovich) Jabotinsky ( 1880 - 1940 ) - one of the leaders of Zionism, the creator of revisionism in Zionism, the Jewish Legion (together with I. Trumpeldor) and the Ezel and Beitar organizations. Journalist, writer, poet (wrote in Russian and Hebrew).