Aleksander Zederbaum
Encyclopedia
Aleksander Ossypovich Zederbaum (born in Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...

, August 27, 1816; died in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, September 8, 1893) was a Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

-Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 Jewish journalist. He was founder and editor of Ha-Meliẓ
Ha-Meliz
Ha-Meliẓ was the first Hebrew newspaper in Russia. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum, in Odessa, in 1860, as a weekly, and was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1871....

, and other periodicals published in Russian and Yiddish; he wrote in Hebrew.

A son of poor parents, he was apprenticed to a tailor. He succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...

, and of the Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, and German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

s. He married in Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

, and in 1840 left for Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, then the Mecca of the Haskalah
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...

movement. He obtained there a commercial position, made the acquaintance of the Maskilim of the city, and in his leisure hours continued to work for his self-education. Later he opened a clothing-store, and was himself cutter in his tailoring-shop.

In 1860 Zederbaum succeeded in obtaining the government's permission to publish "Ha-Meliẓ," the first Hebrew periodical issued in Russia; and three years later he began publishing the pioneer Yiddish journal "Ḳol Mebasser
Kol Mevasser
Kol Mevasser , a Yiddish language periodical that appeared from October 11, 1862 into 1872, is considered by Sol Liptzin and others to be the most important early Yiddish-language periodical .Originally founded by Alexander Zederbaum as a supplement to his...

." After an existence of eight years the latter paper was suppressed by the government, whereupon Zederbaum went to Saint Petersburg, obtaining permission to transfer the headquarters of "Ha-Meliẓ" to that city. He was also granted permission to do his own printing, and to publish, besides "Ha-Meliẓ," a Russian weekly ("Vyestnik Ruskich Yedreed"), which, however, enjoyed only a short existence, as did also the "Razsvyet," which he started a few years later. In 1881 he founded the "Volksblatt," a daily Yiddish journal which existed for eight years, although Zederbaum was its editor for only a few years.

Zederbaum was the author of "Keter Kehunnah" and "Ben ha-Meẓarim," but neither of these works met with any success. His chief significance lies in the fact that he was a champion of the Haskalah. His Yiddish periodical "Ḳol Mebasser" offered an opportunity for many of the best jargon-writers to develop their talents; and among these may be mentioned Linetzky
Yitzkhok Yoel Linetzky
Yitzkhok Yoel Linetzky was a Yiddish language author and early Zionist. Sol Liptzin characterized him as "a master of the picturesque vitriolic phrase." [Liptzin, 1972, 46]-Life:...

, Abramowitch
Mendele Mocher Sforim
Mendele Mocher Sforim , December 21, 1835 = January 2, 1836 , Kapyl — November 25, 1917 = December 8, 1917...

, Spector, and Sholem Aleichem.

Zederbaum exercised considerable influence in government circles, and it was due to his intercession that an impartial judgment was obtained for many Jewish families accused of ritual murder in Kutais; he disclosed also the ignorance of the Russian anti-Semite Lutostansky, whose pamphlets threatened to become dangerous for the Russian Jews. The Palestine Association of Odessa owed its existence to Zederbaum's activity.

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