RUVN (REUBEN) FINK

RUVN (REUBEN) FINK (January 18, 1889-February 15, 1961)

            He was born in Hosht (Hoshcha), Volhynia.  In 1903 he came to the United States.  He studied at universities in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York.  He earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees.  He was for a time a teacher of chemistry in middle school, later of mathematics at the University of Washington.  He gave up teaching because of his struggle for liberal immigration laws.  He was for many years a leader in Jewish community life in America.  He was vice-chairman of the association of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews.  He was involved in virtually all the important Jewish organizations.  He began his literary activity with a translation (into Hebrew) of Alphonse Daudet’s The Last Class, in Hadoar (The mail) in New York (1905).  He went on to contribute to Yiddish and English publications: Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), the weekly American Hebrew, and others, in New York.  In 1911 he was editor of the weekly Dos vashingtoner lebn (The Washington life), while at the same time he was publishing articles in: Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Tsukunft (Future), Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people), and Groyser kundes (Grest prankster), among others.  Over the years 1914-1921, he was the Washington correspondent for Tog (Day) in New York.  He was one of the four Yiddish journalists who were invited by President Wilson to the Peace Conference in Versailles (1918-1919).  He was a regular contributor to Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York.  He was the manager of and a contributor (1921-1922) to the Labor Zionist daily newspaper Di tsayt (The times) in New York, and he contributed work to: Di tsayt in London; Haynt (Today) in Warsaw; Vilner tog (Vilna day), Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), and Parizer haynt (Paris today), among others.  He authored books in Yiddish and English, among them in Yiddish: Der amerikaner birger (The American citizen) (New York, 1916), 59 pp.; Di konstitutsye un di deklaratsye fun umophengikeyt (The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) (New York, 1919), 64 pp.; Vi azoy arayntsubrengen kroyvim keyn amerike (How to bring relatives to America) (New York, 1919), 36 pp.; Pasportn un vizes (Passports and visas) (New York, 1919), 64 pp.  In English: The American War Congress and Zionism (New York, 1919), 228 pp.; and America and Palestine (New York, 1944), 522 pp., with B. G. Richards; among others.  He edited with Abraham Yaron the remembrance book, Sefer hosht (Volume for Hoshcha) (Tel Aviv, 1957), 294 pp.  He also published under such pen names as: Dr. Roberts Kats, Dr. Mary Goldfarb, F. Rodgers, Statistikum, and Baron von Hoshter.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Y. Kopilov, Amol un shpeter (Once and later) (Vilna, 1932), pp. 344ff; B. G. Richards, in Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York) (February 1939); Y. Chaikin, Yidishe bleter in amerike (Yiddish newspapers in America) (New York, 1946), see index; Y. Libman, in Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (September 5, 1952); D. Naymark, in Forverts (New York) (August 20, 1957); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (new York) (September 1, 1957); Dr. F. Fridman, in Kultur un dertsiung (New York) (October 1958).

Khayim Leyb Fuks