Dr. Moses Silberfarb, jurist, author and active Socialist worker, died here today after a lengthy illness. Dr. Silberfarb was formerly Minister for Jewish Affairs in the short lived Ukrainian Republic.
He was born in Rovno in the province of Wolhynia on September 7, 1876. He was a member of a wealthy Chassidic family. In his youth he received the traditional training of the orthodox Chassidic group. Later he turned to secular learning and studies at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev and at the University of Berlin. He held degrees from these universities in chemistry, medicine and law.
While studying at the University of Kiev, Dr. Silberfarb became interested in the revolutionary movement. He joined the Socialists as an active revolutionary. In 1905 he and a group of his comrades founded a Socialist group, “Rebirth.” This group had a profound influence on the development of Jewish Socialist thought in Russia. He was a frequent contributor to Jewish and Russian Socialist periodicals. In 1911 he published his history of the Jewish communities in Russia.
When the March revolution broke out in 1917, Dr. Silberfarb went to Kiev where he played an important role in the political life of the Ukrainian Republic. He negotiated an agreement with the provisional Russian government, headed by Alexander Kerensky, which guaranteed the virtual independence of the Ukraine. Later he was national secretary of the Ukrainian Democratic Peoples’ Party. He was made Minister for Jewish affairs in the Ukrainian government, a post which he held until the regime was overthrown by the Bolsheviks.
Following the October revolution, Dr. Silberfarb gave up all political activity and became director of the Jewish Peoples’ University in Kiev and president of the Jewish Culture League. In 1921 he left for Poland where he became active in the work of the Ort Federation.
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