Joseph Massel

Joseph Massel (also Yoysef Yechezkel Mazl), born in Wjasin near Vilna, Russia, 1850;[1] d. Manchester, 1912)[2] was a Zionist activist, writer, Hebrew poet and translator.

Massel was a pioneer in the promotion of Hebrew as the national language, publishing works by Israel Cohen and Harry Sacher among others.

[5][6] He also spent two years preparing a unique collection of 94 portraits called A Gallery of Hebrew Poets; 1725–1903.

[7] By the time Chaim Weizmann arrived in Manchester in 1904, Massel was living in a small street of the lower end of Cheetham Hill Road[8] (where his Hebrew printing works was based)[9] across from Red Bank and not far from the Central Synagogue.

Showing Weizmann hospitality he never forgot, Massel collected him from the train station, put him up for the night and arranged lodgings for him the next day.