Simon Dubnow
Simon Dubnow was a Jewish-Russian historian, writer, and activist who lived from September 10, 1860 to December 8, 1941. Shimon Meyerovich Dubnow was born into a large poor family in the Belarusian town of Mstsislaw (Mogilev Region). He had a traditional Jewish education at a heder and a yeshiva, where Hebrew was regularly spoken, being a native Yiddish speaker. Dubnow afterwards enrolled in a kazyonnoye yevreyskoe uchilishche (state Jewish school) to learn Russian. The May Laws abolished these...See more
Simon Dubnow was a Jewish-Russian historian, writer, and activist who lived from September 10, 1860 to December 8, 1941. Shimon Meyerovich Dubnow was born into a large poor family in the Belarusian town of Mstsislaw (Mogilev Region). He had a traditional Jewish education at a heder and a yeshiva, where Hebrew was regularly spoken, being a native Yiddish speaker. Dubnow afterwards enrolled in a kazyonnoye yevreyskoe uchilishche (state Jewish school) to learn Russian. The May Laws abolished these Jewish institutions in the midst of Dubnow's schooling, and he was unable to graduate; Dubnow persisted, exploring his interests in history, philosophy, and languages on his own. Heinrich Graetz and the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement piqued his interest. Dubnow moved to St Petersburg, which was technically off-limits to Jews, in 1880 using falsified documents. Unless they had been discharged from the military, were working as doctors or dentists, or could prove they were 'cantonists', university graduates, or merchants belonging to the 1st guild, Jews were mainly restricted to tiny towns in the Pale of Settlement. He married Ida Friedlin here. Dubnow's works began to emerge in the press soon after his move to St. Petersburg, including the leading Russian-Jewish periodical Voskhod. Dubnow was compelled to flee the capital city when the Jewish community was evicted in 1890. See less