RUVN RUBINSHTEYN

RUVN RUBINSHTEYN (June 16, 1891-September 19, 1967)[1]

            He was a journalist and editor, born in Utyan (Utena), Lithuania.  He studied in religious elementary school.  He graduated from a Hebrew high school in Vilna and from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.  From 1923 he was living in Kovno.  He was a deputy to the Lithuanian parliament, a city councilor in the Kovno city administration, and one of the leading Jewish figures in Lithuania.  He was deported by the Soviets in July 1940 to a Siberian labor camp.  Liberated in 1943, he lived in Munich (1946-1947) and in 1948 settled in Israel where he was director of Yiddish broadcasting on state radio “Kol yisroel” (Voice of Israel).  He journalistic activities began in Russian, and he was a member of the editorial board of Razsvet (Dawn).  In 1915 he switched to Yiddish.  He was: an internal contributor to Petrograder togblat (Petrograd daily newspaper), edited by Yitskhok Grinboym; edited Unzer togblat (Our daily newspaper) in Petrograd (January 31-August 9, 1918); and wrote for Tsienistishe zamelbikher (Zionist anthologies) in Petrograd (1918).  From 1923 he served as editor or co-editor of a string of newspaper and other publications: first and largest Yiddish daily in independent Lithuania, Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice), until it was closed down by the Soviets in 1940; the weekly Di velt (The world), with Shiye Klinov, in Kovno and Berlin (1924-1925); the literary journal Mir aleyn (We alone), co-editor, in Kovno (1930); Unzer veg (Our way), organ of Holocaust survivors in Germany (Munich, 1946-1948); Yahadut lita (Jews of Lithuania), 3 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1959-1972), co-editor; Zamlung (Collection), explanatory booklets from Misrad Habitaḥon (Tel Aviv) in Yiddish.  He also wrote for Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv.  A selection of his essays and articles was published in Sefer reuven rubinshteyn (Volume for Ruvn Rubinshteyn) (Tel Aviv, 1971).  He translated Efrayim Dekel’s Geheym-dinst fun “hagane” in erets-yisroel (The secret service of Haganah in the land of Israel) (Buenos Aires, 1955; Tel Aviv, 1960), 350 pp.  He wrote on general political, legal, Jewish, and Zionist themes.  His pen names: R. R., Karmi, Ben, and Nobody.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), index; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958); Mortkhe Tsanin, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (September 8, 1968); Yahadut lita (Jews of Lithuania), 3 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1959-1972), see index; Yekhiel Hirshhoyt, in Tsukunft (New York) 3 (1972); Itonut yehudit shehayta (Jewish press that was) (Tel Aviv, 1973), see index; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Ruvn Goldberg

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[1] The Jewish American Yearbook gives an incorrect year of death: 1943.