A public reception is to be held here to-morrow at the Town Hall in honour of Mr. Reuben Brainin, the doyen of Hebrew literature and journalism, on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Mr. Reuben Brainin was born in Liadi, in the province of Mohilev, in Russia. It was not till the age of 16 that he took up secular studies, intending to become an agronomist and engage in work on the land. When he lived in Moscow, in the sighties, he was one of the first members of the Moscow National Zionist Student Circle, the B’nai Zion. He published his first Hebrew article in 1881, in the “Hameletz”. In 1892 he went to Vienna, where he attended lectures at the University, studying at the same time at the Beth Hamedrash.
Mr. Brainin is also a noted Yiddish journalist, and has contributed extensively to most of the big Yiddish dailies.
He settled in America in 1910, editing the Hebrew weekly “Hadoar”, and for some time he was editor in Montreal of the Yiddish daily, the “Canadian Eagle”.
Although one of the leaders of the Hebraist movement, Mr. Brainin recognises the importance of the Jewish cultural movement in Yiddish, and he is a determined opponent of the conflict between Yiddishists and Hebraists.
Mr. Brainin has also taken great interest in the Jewish colonisation movement in Russia, and has visited the colonies there, and conducted campaigns for funds on behalf of the Jewish colonisation work in Russia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
