Simon Dubnow Russian language: Семен Маркович Дубнов (September 10, 1860 - December 8, 1941) was a Jewish historian, writer and activist.

Life

Born Shimon Meyerovich Dubnov (Шимон Меерович Дубнов) to a large poor family in Belarusian town of Mstislavl (Mahilyow region), after receiving traditional Jewish education in a heder and a yeshiva, he entered into a kazyonnoe yevreyskoe uchilishche (state Jewish school) where he learned the Russian language. Simon was unable to graduate from it because these institutions were soon eliminated by a Tsarist ukase and he had to pursue his interests in history, philosophy and linguistics by self-educating. He was fascinated with Heinrich Graetz.

In 1880, he used forged documents to move to St. Petersburg which was officially out of reach: a rare exception to settle in large cities was made only to "useful Jews", such as registered prostitutes, former cantonists or very wealthy merchants (see Pale of Settlement).

Soon Dubnow's publications appeared in the press, including the leading Russian-Jewish magazine Voskhod. In 1890, during the expulsion of Jews from the capital city, Dubnow was forced to leave. He settled in Odessa and continued to publish studies of Jewish life and history and came to be regarded an authority in these areas.

Dubnow actively participated in contemporary social and political life in the Russian Empire. He called for modernizing Jewish education, organizing Jewish self-defense (see Pogrom) and for equal rights, including the right to vote.

In 1906 he was allowed back to St. Petersburg, where he founded and directed Jewish Literature and Historical-Etnographic society and edited the Jewish Encyclopedia. In the same year, he founded the Jewish People's Party, which existed until 1918. After 1917 Dubnow became Professor of Jewish history in Petrograd University.

In 1922 he emigrated to Kaunas and later to Berlin. His magnum opus was ten volumes of History of the Jewish people, first published in German language in 1925-1929.

In August 1933, after Adolf Hitler came to power, Dubnow moved to Riga, Latvia. The Nazi troops occupied Riga in July 1941 and Dubnow, with thousands of other Jews, was transferred to Riga ghetto. According to few survivors, Dubnow repeated to ghetto inhabitants: "Yidn, shreibt un ferschreibt" (Yiddish: "Jews, write and record").

On December 8, Simon Dubnow was murdered in the Rumbula forest, along with other ghetto Jews.

Beliefs

Dubnow was ambivalent toward Zionism and completely rejected assimilation. He believed that future survival of the Jews as a nation depends on their spiritual and cultural strength and self-rule in the diaspora. This ideology became known as Autonomism and was adopted by various versions in the platforms of some Jewish parties such as the Bund, but after the Holocaust has lost its popularity.

See also

• History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
• Timeline of Jewish history

External links

• Autonomism
• Dubnow's biography
• Simon Dubnow Institute

Bibliography

• "History of the Jewish people" (original in German: "Weltgeschichte des Jüdischen Volkes", "История еврейского народа") in 10 volumes, 1929
• "The newest history of the Jewish people, 1789-1914", ("Die neueste Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes", "Новейшая история еврейского народа"), in 3 volumes, updated in 1938.
• "History of the Hassidism" ("Geschichte des Chassidismus"), 1888.
• "Jewish history textbook" (Учебник еврейской истории) in 3 volumes, 1901
• "My life" ("Моя жизнь"), Berlin, 1937