Series 1 - Literary and editorial activities

The Hebrew writer, biographer, critic and Zionist leader Reuben Brainin was born in Lyady, Belorussia in 1862. After receiving a traditional Jewish education he left his parents’ home at the age of 16 and went to Horki to study agronomy. From there he moved to Moscow, where he resided from 1880 to 1888. During that period (1881) he made his literary debut, with articles published in the Hebrew journal Hamelitz. In 1892 Brainin settled in Vienna, where he studied at university and served as editor of an influential Hebrew periodical Mimizrach Umima’arav (1894-1899), and as co-editor of Zion. While in Vienna and Berlin (1895-1909) he published numerous essays, including important critiques of the Hebrew authors Judah Leib Gorden, Peretz Smolenskin, Abraham Mapu, and Saul Tschernichowsky. The central theme of Brainin’s critical opus was Hebrew literature in the chosen media. Brainin was also active in the Zionist movement during these years. In 1909 Brainin came to the United States, and three years later settled in Montreal, where he edited the Yiddish newspapers Der Veg (1915-1916) and Der Keneder Adler (1915-1916). He was one of the founders (1914) and leaders of the Jewish Public Library and People’s University. Brainin returned to New York in 1916, where he resided until his death in 1939. He edited the Hebrew journal Hatoren (1919-1925) and contributed to numerous Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals, including the Jewish Daily News (1916-1920) and The Day (1921-1939). During the 1920s Brainin became an active supporter of Jewish agricultural colonization in the Soviet Union, and went on lecture tours throughout North America and South Africa to raise funds in support of this cause.

Brainin published several books in Hebrew and Yiddish during his lifetime, including two on Smolenskin (Warsaw, 1896 and Vilna, 1901), one on Theodor Herzl (New York, 1919), plus selected writings in Hebrew (Warsaw, 1909) and Yiddish (New York, 1917) as well as collected works in three volumes (New York, 1922-1940). He edited a collection of Hebrew poems (Jerusalem, 1910) and a commemorative volume on Eliezer Ben Yehuda (New York, 1915). Brainin also translated into Hebrew three German books: Der Prophet Jeremias by M. Lazarus (Warsaw, 1897), Das neue Ghette, by Theodor Herzl (Warsaw, 1898) and Paradoxes, by Max Nordau (1901). In 1922 a festschrift appeared, in honour of Brainin’s 60th birthday. His diary was published posthumously in Yiddish (New York, 1946).