Reuben Asher Braudes

See also: Braudes

File:ראובן אשר בראודס - 1851וילנה – 18 באוקטובר 1902, וינה.jpg

Reuben Asher Braudes in 1900

Reuben As(c)her Braudes, Reuven Asher Braudes (Hebrew: רְאוּבֵן אָשֵׁר בּראודס‎; Russian: Реувен Ашер Браудес; 1851, Wilna - 18 October 1902, Vienna) was a Lithuania-born Hebrew novelist and journalist.

Educated on the usual Talmudic lines of Jewish education, he came early under the influence of the Maskilim.

In 1868 Braudes became a contributor to "Ha-Lebanon", a Hebrew weekly published by Brill Publishers in Mainz, and for several years he devoted his pen to topics of the day and to criticism.

It was as a novelist, however, that he was to make a mark in Hebrew literature. In 1874 he published in "The Dawn" (Hebrew: השחר‎), a monthly edited by Smolenskin at Vienna, his first story, entitled "The Mysteries of the Zephaniah Family", a tale of great promise from its style and vivid descriptions. The next year appeared his second novel, "The Repentant", which was followed by one entitled "Religion and Life", treating of Jewish life. This remarkable work was published in "The Morning Light", issued by Gottlober at Lemberg in 1875.

Another novel of great merit, "The Two Extremes", appeared in Lemberg in 1885. In this book Braudes pictures in vivid colors the Orthodox and Reformed camps in modern Israel.

In 1882, at the time of the anti-Semitic riots in Russia, Braudes plunged into the Zionist movement and became one of its foremost advocates. To foster this idea he went to Romania, and began the publication at Bucharest of "Yehudit", a weekly in Yiddish. At the end of two years, however, Braudes was expelled from the country.

In 1891 he went to Cracow, Galicia, and started a weekly in Hebrew, "The Time". This paper existed for nine months, when, for lack of funds, its publication was suspended.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  ([1])

By : Louis Ginzberg & Max Raisin

External links

• Works by Reuben Asher Braudes at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)