A
political and philosophical journalist and essayist, he was born in Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Latvia, the brother of Arn
Shteynberg. He descended from a wealthy,
well-pedigreed family. His mother was
the older sister of Bal-Makhshoves. He
received a fervently religious upbringing which left behind deep traces on the
future revolutionary leader and writer and continued even at the time when he
was a People’s Commissar in the Soviet Union.
In 1906 he graduated from high school in Pernov (Pärnu), Estonia. He studied at Moscow University, later at the
University of Heidelberg, whence in 1910 he received his doctor of laws
degree. He was arrested several times
for his activities with the Socialist Revolutionaries (from 1906). In December 1917, as representative of the
Left Socialist Revolutionaries, he served as People’s Commissar for Justice in
Lenin’s coalition government (until February 1918). In 1923 he was living in Berlin, and over the
years 1933-1939 in London. From 1935 he
was on the world executive committee of the Freeland League and among its top
leaders. In Australia he led work on
behalf of Jewish colonization of the Kimberley region. From 1943 he was living in New York.
His
literary activities began in Russian in scholarly legal and general
periodicals. He contributed as well to
German socialist newspapers. He began
literary work in Yiddish as a contributor to Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) and Tsukunft (Future) in New York.
He published individual articles in: Tog
(Day) and Fortshrit (Progress) in New
York; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in
Bialystok; Der shpigl (The mirror)
and Di prese (The press) in Buenos
Aires; Literarishe bleter (Literary
leaves), Haynt (Today), Naye shtime (New voice), and Dos naye vort (The new word) in Warsaw; Folksblat (People newspaper) in Kovno; Unzer tog (Our day) in Vilna; Di yidishe post (The Jewish mail) in
Johannesburg; Idishe velt (Jewish
world) in Philadelphia; Oystralishe
yidishe nayes (Australian Jewish news) in Melbourne; Frayland (Freeland) in Jassy (Iași) and Paris; and Foroys (Onward) in Mexico City; among
others. He published: “Yidishe
kolonizatsye” (Jewish colonization), in Algemeyne
entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), “Yidn” 1; “Mayn bobe khaye-sore” (My
grandmother Khaye-Sore), in Lite
(Lithuania), vol. 1 (New York, 1951); and “Di shverd un di flam” (The sword and
the flame), in Dovid
edelshtadt gedenk-bukh (Dovid Edelshtadt remembrance volume), ed. B. Y.
Byalostotski (New York: Dovid Edelshtadt Committee, 1953). He edited: Fraye shriftn far yidishn sotsyalistishn gedank (Free writing for
Jewish socialist thought), 18 vols. (Warsaw); Dos fraye vort (the free word) (London, 1933-1935); and Afn shvel (On the threshold) (from
1942).
His writings
in Yiddish: Der moralisher ponem fun der
revolutsye (The moral face of the revolution), translated from the Russian
by Shmuel Fridman (Berlin: Naye gezelshaft, 1925), 351 pp.; Maksimalizm in der yidisher velt
(Maximalism in the Jewish world) (Berlin: N. Horwitz, 1925), 66 pp.; Der veg fun payn, dramatishe stsenes fun der
rusisher revolutsye (The painful way, dramatic scenes from the Russian
revolution [original: Dornenweg],
trans. Shiye Rapoport (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza, 1928), 121 pp.; Fun februar biz oktober 1917 (From February to October 1917),
translated from the Russian by Shiye Rapoport (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza, 1928), 392
pp.; Zikhroynes fun a folks-komisar (Memoirs
of a people’s commissar) (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza, 1931), 228 pp.; 30 yor sotsyalistishe ideen in rusland
(Thirty years of socialist ideas in Russia) (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza, 1935), 34 pp.;
Marya spiridanova, ir lebn un kamf (Maria
Spiridonova, her life and struggle), trans. Shiye Rapoport (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza,
1936), 3 vols., second edition (1937); Gelebt
un gekholemt in oystralye (Lived and dreamt in Australia) (Melbourne,
1943), 403 pp., second edition (New York, 1945); Ofene reyd tsu oysṭralishe yidn, baylage tsum bukh “Gelebt un gekholemt
in oysṭralye” (Straightforward talk to Australian Jews, supplement to the
book “Lived and dreamt in Australia”) (Sydney, 1943), 39 pp.; A land far yidn in oystralye (A land for
Jews in Australia) (New York: Frayland-lige, 1944), 16 pp., republished in Tsukunft; Nider mit der milkhome (Down with the war!) (New York:
Frayland-lige, 1947), 15 pp.; Mi eyn fus
in amerike, perzonen, gesheenishn un ideen (With one foot in America, people,
events, and ideas) (Mexico City: Jewish Cultural Center, 1951), 293 pp.; In kamf far mentsh un yid (In the
struggle for man and Jew) (Buenos Aires, 1952), 439 pp. He also published books, some of them
translated, in Russian, German, and English.
As a journalist and thinker, Shteynberg strove to justify a new school
of Jewish socialism with an ethical ideal of human solidarity and social
justice. He died in New York.
“In
essence,” wrote Khayim-Shloyme Kazdan, “Yitskhok-Nakhmen Shteynberg was of an
artistic nature…. In his writing there was
a rhythm, a temperament, and…a poetic quality….
For works of fine literature, he felt free to express his feeling and
ideas. There was more air to perpetuate
images and people from the era of the revolution,…to perpetuate his own sorrow
and pain from violated ideas and people.
His main weapon in journalism was his ardent sense of justice and
humanism: not only individual, moral justice but also historical and
cultural-national [justice]. He
controlled this direct sensibility with the strength of his logical analysis,
of his cultural-scientific and Jewish-national experience…. His Yiddish was pure and simple. A juicy Litvak Yiddish, a bit Germanicized,
with a Hassidic aristocratic coloration, and always on the level of the modern
Yiddish literary word. One could often
hear this in his writing—the speaker, the tribune. This was his own innovative style—the style of
a blessed journalist and essayist.”
“He
always caressed a wonderful dream of politics,” noted Ezriel Naks, “that need
not sully nor dishonor morality, because he knew that, without morality,
politics is not politics, and a person is not a person.”
“Shteynberg,”
in the words of Shiye Rapoport, “was an editor and a writer of the highest
ideological and literary purity,…one of the few editors among us who elevated
the profession of an editor to the level of art…. His journal [Fraye shriftn] gave Y. N. Shteynberg the opportunity to enrich
Yiddish journalistic literature.”
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (April 17, 1926); Shiye Rapoport, Tsvishn yo! un neyn! kritik un esey
(Between yes! and no!, critic and essay) (Warsaw: Kh. Bzhoza, 1937), pp.
97-129; Meylekh Ravitsh, in Tsukunft
(New York) 1 (1945); A. Suskovitsh, in Davke
(Buenos Aires) 30 (1957); Yitskhok nakhmen
shteynberg gedenk-bukh, der mentsh, zayn vort, zayn oyftu, 1888-1957
(Yitskhok-Nakhmen Shteynberg remembrance volume, the man, his word, his
accomplishment, 1888-1957) (New York, 1961), with a bibliography, and the
citations above from Kazdan, Naks, and Rapoport may be found here; Rabbi
Binyamin, Keneset ḥakhamim
(Congregation of the wise) (Jerusalem, 1960), pp. 252-54; Leyzer Pines, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 41 (1961);
Grigori Aronson, Rusish-yidishe
inteligents (Russian-Jewish intellectuals) (Buenos Aires: Yidbukh, 1962),
pp. 188-217; Michael Astour, Geshikhte
fun der frayland-lige un funem teritoryalistishn gedank (History of the
Freeland League and of the territorialist idea) (New York, 1967), pp. 42-43;
Shoyl Gutman, Traditsye un banayung,
eseyen (Traditional and renewal, essays) (New York: Matones, 1967); Berl
Locker, Mikitov ad yerushalaim (From Kuty
to Jerusalem) (Jerusalem, 1970), pp. 97-99; Mortkhe Shekhter, in Afn shvel (New York) 227 (1977).
Leyzer Podryatshik
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