Jacob Rombro

Background

Jacob Rombro was was born in Zuphran, Province of Wilna (then a part of the Russian Empire), although some biographers give Khodaki, Podolia, as his birthplace. His parents were Baruch Rombro and Bella Rosa (Uger).

Education

When he was fourteen years old, he entered the Rabbinical Seminary in Zhitomir, Volhynia, but a year later the Seminary closed its doors, and he then attended the Realschule in Krementchug, graduating in 1879. The next two years he spent at the Technological Institute at St. Petersburg. While still a student at the Realschule he became interested in the Revolutionary movement which was fermenting in Russian educational institutions, and was sentenced to be imprisoned for a year in Charkov for political propaganda, and to remain under the supervision of the police.

After the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 he was compelled to leave the country, on account of his alleged affiliations with the conspirators Grinevetzki, Zheliabov, Sophia Perovskaya, and others. He settled in Paris, where he continued his studies at the Sorbonne.

Career

he commenced his prolific literary career with a lengthy treatise on Spinoza in Razsviet, and wrote continuously for other Russian magazines, including Russki Evrey, Woskhod, Kievskaya Zarya, an association which he maintained even later in London and New York. Here, too, began his propagandist activity for the ideals of Social Democracy among the Jewish working classes, and he was among the founders of a Jewish Arbeiter Verein which during its existence was an active center of Socialism for the many emigrants from Czarist Russia, consisting mainly of workers and students. In 1883 Rombro went to London where he was asked by Morris Winchevsky to contribute to his Yiddish weekly socialist journal Der Polischer Yidel. His evil plight was his people's gain, however, since for the remainder of his life he devoted his many talents to their enlightenment, his medium being Yiddish. Within two years he had mastered that language to such a degree that he was able to accept the editorship of the newly founded Arbeiter Freund, a socialist monthly. In 1888 he helped to found a Jewish Social-Democratic group, at whose request he supplied a Yiddish translation (London, 1889) of Lassalle's Das Arbeiter-Programm. The following year he was chosen by the Jewish workers of London as delegate to the first International Socialist Congress in Paris. In 1890 he came to the United States, having been invited to act as editor of a new Social-Democratic weekly, the Arbeiter Zeitung, his associates being Abraham Cahan, Louis Miller, and M. Zametkin. In addition to editorials and articles on socialism, he furnished numerous translations of popular fiction. As the first socialist paper in Yiddish, the Arbeiter Zeitung had a marked influence both on the development of the Jewish labor movement and the Yiddish press in the United States. Rombro's editorship continued for several years after the paper, under the name Abend-Blatt, had been converted into a daily in 1894 and had become the official organ of the Socialist-Labor party. In 1892 Rombro was also appointed editor of the newly established Zukunft, a Yiddish monthly devoted to socialism, belles-lettres, and popular science. Either as editor or contributor, he was associated with practically every Jewish socialist periodical published in America during his lifetime, and at the time of his death was on the staff of the Jewish Daily Forward in New York City. Rombro played an important part in the development of socialist ideas among the Jewish working classes, but he was far from being a blind partisan. He treated events of general interest without bias. During the last twenty years of his life he took no active part in the socialist movement, but his pen was always at its service. He was much more the teacher of social and political progress than the agitator, believed in evolution rather than revolution, advocated peaceful arbitration rather than the use of force, and died an avowed opponent of the Bolshevist regime. His wide erudition and mastery of many languages helped him in his role as interpreter to the Jewish masses of Western sociology, science, history, and culture, and aided him in his endeavor to adjust the newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe to American institutions and practices. His writings are characterized by great earnestness and a flowing style. Among his Yiddish books, some of which went into several editions, were a history of Socialism, a history of the French Revolution, a history of civilization, and a popular astronomy, as well as a method for the study of English, a "History of All America: of all the countries in the New World, " and a series of biographies which appeared in book form, of Aristotle, Bar Kokhba, Josephus Flavius, Mohammed, Don Isaac Abravanel, Baruch Spinoza, Shabbethai Zebi, Lessing and Mendelssohn, the Rothschilds, and Meyerbeer

Works

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• book

  • All America: History Of All The Countries In The New World (1915) (Yiddish Edition)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Himel un Erd: Astronomye Farn Folk Astronomy for the People
  • KRANTZ'S ENGLISH TEACHER. New Practical Method of learning the English Language, Accompanied by the Pronounciation & accent of the English words, by Jacob Rombro. Third revised edition. With: Con
  • America Before Columbus-a Cultural History

Politics

He began his propagandist activity for the ideals of Social Democracy among the Jewish working classes, and he was among the founders of a Jewish Arbeiter Verein which during its existence was an active center of Socialism for the many emigrants from Czarist Russia, consisting mainly of workers and students.

He was chosen by the Jewish workers of London as delegate to the first International Socialist Congress in Paris.

In addition to editorials and articles on socialism, he furnished numerous translations of popular fiction.

Among his Yiddish books, some of which went into several editions, were a history of Socialism, a history of the French Revolution, a history of civilization, and a popular astronomy, as well as a method for the study of English, a "History of All America: of all the countries in the New World, " and a series of biographies which appeared in book form, of Aristotle, Bar Kokhba, Josephus Flavius, Mohammed, Don Isaac Abravanel, Baruch Spinoza, Shabbethai Zebi, Lessing and Mendelssohn, the Rothschilds, and Meyerbeer.

Views

Quotations: Speaking of Winchevsky's request to write for his paper a description of the riots against the Jews in Russia, Rombro said (Wiener, post, p. 223): "It was a hard job for me, and it took me a long time to do it. I never thought of writing in the Jewish Jargon, but fate ordered otherwise, and, contrary to all my aspirations, I am now nothing more than a poor Jargon journalist. "

Personality

During the last twenty years of his life he took no active part in the socialist movement, but his pen was always at its service. He was much more the teacher of social and political progress than the agitator, believed in evolution rather than revolution, advocated peaceful arbitration rather than the use of force, and died an avowed opponent of the Bolshevist regime.

His wide erudition and mastery of many languages helped him in his role as interpreter to the Jewish masses of Western sociology, science, history, and culture, and aided him in his endeavor to adjust the newly arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe to American institutions and practices.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Rombro's editorship continued for several years after the paper, under the name Abend-Blatt, had been converted into a daily in 1894 and had become the official organ of the Socialist-Labor party.

Connections

He married Eva Gordon; his death occurred in New York City.

Wife:

Eva

He married Eva Gordon