Today in Yiddishkayt… March 16
Birthday of Reuben Brainin, Yiddish-Hebrew writer and publisher
Reuben (or Ruven) Brainin was born on March 16, 1862 in Liady (today: Ляды, Belarus). Brainin left his traditional Jewish upbringing at the age of 16, traveling to Moscow to study agriculture. He then moved to Vienna where he participated in Kadimah, the Jewish nationalist student organization, and started his own journal entitled ממזרח וממערב (From East and West). In 1896 Brainin moved to Berlin, where he helped develop a Hebrew cultural society which included authors such as Ahad Ha-Am and David Neumark.
Between 1902 and 1903, Brainin became well known through his success as editor of Ahad Ha-Am’s Hebrew literary almanac, לוח אחיאסף (Achi’asaf Calendar). Brainin continued his extraordinary productivity for a time, mostly in the Hebrew press, though occasionally in Yiddish newspapers as well. In the early years of the 20th century, Brainin was acclaimed for his translations of the plays Das neue Ghetto (The New Ghetto) by Theodor Herzl, Der Prophet Jeremias by Moritz Lazarus, and Paradoxes by Max Nordau and for his clear and palatable Hebrew style. He was also known for his engaging personality and conversational ability, and his vision of an aesthetically refined and Europe-oriented Hebraic renaissance.
Founders of the Montréal Jewish Public Library, 1930′s. From left to right: Mordecai Ginzburg, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Cohen, and Reuben Brainin.
Brainin moved to New York in 1910, where he published a collection of Hebrew poetry as well as a collection of Yiddish articles and stories. In 1912 Brainin left New York for Montreal where he spent four years editing Yiddish newspapers such as קענעדער אָדלער (Canadian Eagle) and װעג (The Path), despite his expressed preference for writing in Hebrew. He is also credited with inspiring the creation of the Canadian Jewish Congress and, with Yehudah Kaufman, for establishing Montreal’s Jewish Public Library. As editor of the קענעדער אָדלער, Brainin demonstrated his commitment to social issues, intervening on behalf of striking tailors in 1914 and assisting in war relief efforts for refugees after World War I. He also edited the journal התורן (The Mast) until 1926.
In 1926, Brainin traveled to South Africa as a representative of the campaign to settle Jews in Birobidzhan. His support of this highly controversial plan, as well as a libel suit against Chaim Nachman Bialik (Brainin claimed that Bialik had called him an anti-Zionist traitor) led to Brainin’s total break with the Hebraist–Zionist literary world. Partially as a result of this isolation, Brainin became increasingly involved with Yiddish intellectual culture. His major from this period Yiddish works include אומשטערבלעכע רייד: וועגן בירא־בידזשאן און וועגן דער סאוועטישער לייזונג פון דער נאציאנאלער פראגע (Immortal Discourse: On Birobidzhan and the Soviet Solution to the National Question) and יומן מוסקבה (Moscow Diary), which was written in 1926 but not published until 1975.
Brainin died in New York at age 77 after long illness and was buried in Montreal. His archive is preserved at the Montreal Jewish Public Library.
