AVROM GOLDBERG

AVROM GOLDBERG (October 18, 1881-October 24, 1933)

            The older brother of Menahem Boraisho (Menakhem Boreysho), he was born in Brisk (Brest), Lithuania.  He father was one of the most prominent followers of the Jewish Enlightenment in Ḥoveve-Tsiyon (Lovers of Zion), a Hebrew teacher, and a writer.  He received both a Jewish and general education, initially with his father and later at a Talmud-Torah.  For a time he was an external student in Odessa.  From his early youth he was occupied with Zionist activities, and spent a year in the Kibbutz “Perushim” (Pharisees) in Malch.  He was one of the leading Jewish personalities in Poland between the two world wars.  He was a member of the central committee of the Zionist Organization and one of the founders of its “Al hamishmar” (On guard) faction.  He was a close friend and ideological comrade of Yitskhok Grinboym, and helped him in all of his political election work, so as to gain a strong Zionist representation in the Polish parliament (Sejm) and also to form a radical fighting movement both in opposition to Jewish assimilation and against Orthodoxy in the Jewish middle class.  For a time he was president of the Jewish division of the journalists’ syndicate in Warsaw, and there he fought so that Jewish journalists would take on greater responsibility for their work, which would make them worthy of the function and leadership of the Jewish community of some three million in Poland.  He began to write articles about Jewish national issues in Hatsfira (The siren) and Hamelits (The advocate), and from that time on he attached his personal life to journalism.  In 1902 he became a technical contributor to Hatsofe (The spectator).  In 1905 he switched to Yiddish and published his first works in Shmuel Yankev Yatskan’s humorous newspaper, Di bin (The bee), Mortkhe Spektor’s Fraytog (Friday) in Warsaw, and the first Yiddish one-kopek newspaper in Warsaw, Idishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper).  Goldberg excelled at being a journalist and columnist.  He reacted to the daily events in his own style and commentary, with an emphasis on the fight for Jewish rights and Zionist ties to the issues at hand.  With the founding of Haynt (Today) in Warsaw (1908), he became one of its regular, most distinguished contributors and its editorial secretary.  In the summer of 1912, on behalf of Haynt, he traveled to Western Europe and carried out interviews with the Russian spiritual and community elite among the émigrés concerning the Jewish question in Russia.  He also influenced them to come out against Tsarist persecutions of Jews and to protest against the Beilis trial in Kiev.  When Haynt became a cooperative venture, Goldberg was selected to serve as editor-in-chief.  His attracting the best representatives of Jewish literature and journalism as contributors to Haynt enabled him to convert the newspaper into an important vehicle for fighting on behalf of Jewish national rights in Poland.  He introduced the weekly literature page and the section entitled “Fun bikher-tish” (From the book table), which helped enhance the position of the Yiddish book market.  He strove to make the Yiddish press aware of the nationally conscious and struggling Jewish masses.  He also contributed to Frishman’s Haboker (This morning) and to the Russian-Jewish Voskhod (Sunrise) and Rech’ (Speech) in St. Petersburg, for which he wrote his reports on the Beilis trial.  For many years he was the Warsaw correspondent for Tog (Day) in New York and Tsayt (Times) in London.  He was editor of the newspaper Morgnblat (Morning newspaper) and Letste post (Last mail) in Warsaw (1906-1907).  He wrote under the pseudonyms: Ibrahim and A. Meshoyrer.  He died in Warsaw.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Dr. L. Zhitnitski, Yoyvl-numer haynt (Jubilee issue of Haynt) (Warsaw, 1928); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1; N. Finkelshteyn, Yoyvl-bukh fun haynt, 1908-1938 (Jubilee volume for Haynt, 1908-1938) (Warsaw, 1938); M. Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1947); Y. Grinboym, in Entsiklopediya shel galiut, brisk (Encyclopedia of the diaspora, Brisk) (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, 1953); Sh. L. Shneyderman, in Moment (Brazil) (May 1, 1956); B. Shefner, in Forverts (New York) (December 1, 1956); Kh. Finkelshteyn, in Fun noentn over (New York, 1956); Moshe Run, in Davar (Adar, 1956); Y. Sh. Goldshteyn, “A yid tsu yidn” (A Jew for Jews), Forverts (November 15, 1957).
                                                                                                                     Khayim Leyb Fuks