Tavyev (Tawjew) Israel Chaim (1858, the shtetl of Druya, Belarus — 1920, Riga) — writer and educator.

Israel Tavyev wrote in Hebrew. As a boy, he moved with his family to Riga. His father, an adherent of the Haskalah, encouraged Israel to study not only traditional Jewish literature but also secular sciences and foreign languages. At the age of 11, Tavyev was already publishing correspondence in the journal Ha-Levanon.

In 1889, his satirical feuilletons began to appear in the journal Ha-Melitz; he also contributed to the weekly Ha-Dor. From 1908, he published in Hebrew a children’s newspaper He-Haver (with vowelization; Vilna — Riga).

Tavyev published many articles on language and folklore. Of particular importance is his book Otzar ha-meshalim ve-ha-pitgamim (“Treasury of Proverbs and Sayings,” 1919), which contains more than three thousand “winged words” and expressions from Hebrew and Aramaic with explanations.

This was preceded by works compiled by Tavyev, including the reader Eden ha-yeladim (“Children’s Paradise”), with translations of words into Russian, German, French, and English (1896; later more than 15 editions); Ha-Mekhin (“The Preparatory,” 1899, simple texts in Hebrew); the anthology Mivhar ha-sifrut (“Selected Literature,” 1899); the letter-writing manual Iggaron li-vnei ha-ne‘urim (“Letter-Writer for Youth,” Berdichev, 1890); and others.

Tavyev also wrote several plays and produced many translations.