MEYER KREYNIN

MEYER KREYNIN (1867-1939)

            He was born in Alt-Bikhov (Bychaw), Mohilev district, Byelorussia.  He graduated from the law faculty in St. Petersburg.  He was a major industrialist who concerned himself with Jewish community matters: “Ḥevre mefitse hasole” (Society for the promotion of Enlightenment), Jewish education, emigration, work for the Joint Distribution Committee, and the like.  In 1907 he helped to found the Folks-partey (People’s party).  In 1921 he left for Berlin, in 1927 for Paris, and in 1934 he settled in the land of Israel.  He was a member of the editorial board of Di idishe velt (The Jewish world) in St. Petersburg, and he wrote for: Fraynd (Friend), Idishe emigratsye (Jewish emigration) in Berlin, and for Russian Jewish newspapers.  He published Di aynvanderungs-meglikhḳaytn ḳeyn dorem-amerike un di dortige idishe yishuvim (Possibilities for immigration to South America and the local Jewish communities) (Berlin: HIAS-Emigdirekt, 1928), 59 pp.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Pinkes-yekopo (Records of Yekopo [Yevreyskiy komitet pomoshchi zhertvam voyny (Jewish Relief Committee for War Victims)]) (Vilna, 1931); Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1936/1937), p. 445; Ben-Zion Dinur, Bnei dori (My contemporaries) (Tel Aviv, 1963), pp. 207-8; Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 10 (Jerusalem).

Yekhezkl Lifshits