BERISH VAYNRIB (BERNARD DOV WEINRYB)

BERISH VAYNRIB (BERNARD DOV WEINRYB) (May 15, 1900-July 1982)

            He was born in Turbin (Turobin), Lublin district, Poland.  He studied in religious elementary schools and, independently, in the Hrubeshoyv (Hrubieszów) Hassidic synagogue.  After WWI he took up the study of secular subject matter and graduated from high school.  He lived for a time in Kelts (Kielce), Poland, where he was active in the union of business employees, the artisans’ union, and for a short time served as district secretary of Tseire Tsiyon (Young Zionists).  He lived, 1922-1925, in Ludmir, where he founded a Jewish school and was active in “Haḥaluts” (The pioneer).  At that time he contributed to: Lubliner togblat (Lublin daily newspaper) and Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper), as well as political articles for the weekly newspaper, Voliner vokh (Volhynia week) in Rovno.  He later moved to Germany to continue his studies.  He graduated in 1929 from the Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary, and in 1931 he received his doctorate in philosophy.  He worked as librarian, 1928-1933, at the Jewish Theological Seminary and in the Jewish community of Breslau, and he was a member of the editorial council of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.  With the rise of Hitlerism, he moved to Israel.  He was professor of economic science, 1936-1938, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  In late 1939 he came to the United States.  He was a teacher of history in the Herzliya High School in New York, and he was director of the Jewish teachers’ seminary and people’s university in New York (1941); a teacher of history at Brooklyn College; a professor of economics at Dropsie College in Philadelphia; and a lecturer in economics at Columbia University and Yeshiva University in New York.

            Vaynrib published the following research work in Yiddish: “Tsu der geshikhte fun der poylish-yidisher prese” (On the history of the Polish Jewish press), Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) 2.1-2 (1931) in Vilna; “An umbakante yidishe komedye fun poyzner gegnt” (An unknown comedy from Posen district), Yivo-bleter 2 (1931); “Vegn der ershter oysgabe fun di khumoshim mit mendelsons iberzetsung in poyln” (On the first edition of the Pentateuch with Mendelssohn’s translation in Poland), Yivo-bleter 8.1 (1935); “A pekl briv in yidish fun yor 1588” (A batch of letters in Yiddish from the year 1588) and “Dokumentn vegn yidn in poyln in di 40er un 50er yorn” (Documents of Jewish in Poland in the 40s and 50s [of the nineteenth century]), Historishe shriftn (Historical writings) 2 (1937) in Vilna (YIVO); “Tsu der geshikhte fun yidishn onteyl in der poylisher industrye” (On the history of the Jewish part in Polish industry), twenty-one dual-columned pages with numerous charts and statistics, Ekonomishe shriftn (Economic writings) 2 (1932) in Vilna (YIVO); as well as a series of other—some longer, some shorter—research on Jewish history, economics, and philosophy.  He was editor of the periodical Gedank un lebn (Thought and life), published by the Jewish teachers’ seminary and people’s university in New York over the course of the years 1943-1948.  He also wrote “Di yidish profesyonele bavegung in erets-yisroel” (The Jewish trade union movement in the land of Israel), for Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), “Yidn G” (New York, 1942).  His writings also appeared in: Tsukunft (Future), Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people), Kultur un dertsiung (Culture and education), and Tog (Day), among other Yiddish publications in New York.  He was also the author of a number of German-language works: Studien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden in Russland und Polen im 18./19. Jahrhundert (Studies in the economic history of the Jews in Russia and Poland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) (Breslau, 1933), 64 pp.; Neueste Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden in Russland und Polen (Modern economic history of the Jews in Russia and Poland) (Breslau, 1934); Praktischer Schnellkursus für Neuhebräisch, leichte Methode auf natürlicher Grundlage für Kurse, Einzel- und Selbstunterricht (Practical crash course for modern Hebrew, easy method for a natural grounding for courses, individual and self-instructional) (Breslau, 1933-1934), 4 volumes, with M Teitelbaum; Der Kampf um die Berufsumschichtung, ein Ausschnitt aus der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland (The struggle for professional redeployment, a piece of the history of the Jews in Germany) (Berlin, 1936), 63 pp.  In Hebrew: Meḥkarim betoldot hakalkala vehaḥevra shel yehude polin (Studies in the economic and social history of Polish Jews) (Jerusalem, 1940), 120 pp.; Bereshit hasotsializm hayehudi (The origins of Jewish socialism) (Jerusalem, 1940), 106 pp.  In English: Jewish Emancipation under Attack: Its Legal Recession until the Present (New York, 1942), 95 pp.; The Yishuv in Palestine, Structure and Organization (New York, 1947), 38 pp.; Jewish Vocational Education: History and Appraisal of Training in Europe (New York, 1948), 189 pp.; Texts and Studies in the Communal History of Polish Jewry (New York, 1950), 110 + 264 pp.; The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100 to 1800 (Philadelphia, 1973), 424 pp.  He co-authored: The Jews in the Soviet Satellites (Syracuse, 1953), 637 pp.  His writings were also translated into French, Spanish, and other languages.  He lived in Philadelphia until his death.

Sources: Dr. A Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (December 2, 1932); Dr. F. Fridman, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 8 (1935), pp. 258-63; Fridman, in Yivo-bleter 11 (1937), pp. 387-93; Yivo-biblyografye (YIVO bibliography), part 1, 1925-1941 (New York: YIVO, 1943), part 2, 1942-1950 (New York: YIVO, 1955); B. Mark, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (April 10, 1954); The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 10; Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).

Zaynvl Diamant