BOREKH-MOYSHE BRAZ (1858-1917)
He was born in Smorgon (Smarhon’), Vilna region. He studied in various yeshivas—Volozhin among
them—where he stealthily also acquired secular knowledge and became acquainted
with the literature of the Jewish Enlightenment. From the 1890s he was living in Vilna. He was engaged in business, later became a
private teacher and provided local news for the Yiddish newspapers of
Vilna. Perennially living in difficult
straits, he died of hunger during the German occupation of Vilna during
WWI. He was always attentive to the
history of Jewish Vilna and published numerous materials on the “Jerusalem of
Lithuania” in Vilna periodicals: Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper)
(1909); Vilner vokhnblat (Vilna weekly newspaper) (1910); Tog
(Day) (1912); Fraynd (Friend) (1914); and Vilner zamlbukh (Vilna
anthology) 1 (1916), among others. Among
his work were stories about Vilna cantors, Vilna housewives, Napoleon in Vilna,
and the reformed synagogue in Vilna “Taharat hakodesh,” among many such.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1, p. 405; E. Y. Goldshmidt, “Biblyografye
fun brazs historishe artiklen” (Bibliography of Braz’s historical articles), Vilner
zamlbukh 2 (Vilna, 1918); Dr. Y. Shatski, Kultur-geshikhte fun der
haskole in lite (Cultural history of the Jewish Enlightenment in Lithuania)
(Buenos Aires, 1950), p. 148.
No comments:
Post a Comment