Metadata: A. N. Drabkin
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Russian Museum of Ethnography. Research Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Российский этнографический музей. Научный архив
- Postal address:
- 191186, St Petersburg, Inzhenernaya St, 4/1
- Phone number:
- (812) 313-45-74
- Web address:
- http://www.ethnomuseum.ru/
- Email:
- info@ethnomuseum.ru
- Reference number:
- unnumbered
- Title:
- A. N. Drabkin
- Title (official language):
- ДРАБКИН А. Н.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Drabkin, A N
- Date(s):
- 1866/1914
- Language:
- Russian
- German
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- French
- Extent:
- approx. 120 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
[The fonds is currently being processed; information given is as of September 2018.]
Materials in the fonds that describe the official and public activities of Rabbi Avram Drabkin may be divided into the following subject groups:
1. Documents on Avram Drabkin’s attainment of the position of crown rabbi, including an inventory of Jewish vital records from 1854 to 1875 that had been stored at the office of Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer (Rav Itzele Peterburger) – this inventory had been compiled for the purpose of being transferred to Avram Drabkin, by whom it is signed (undated); as well as a statement to the board of the St. Petersburg Jewish community from Yitzchak Blazer to the effect that, in accordance with a memorandum of the board, he had transferred his rabbinic position to the Kovno townsman N Amsterdam; and a letter to Avram Drabkin on Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer’s appointment as interim rabbi of Kronstadt (1877).
2. Documents regarding the organisational and economic activities of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg, including a draft letter to the St. Petersburg city prefect [gradonachal’nik] regarding elections to the board of the Jewish community and approval of its bylaws, and requesting that new elections be postponed until approval of the bylaws (1876); a letter to Avram Drabkin on letterhead of the board of the Jewish community (Fontanka Embankment, Egyptian Bridge, no. 143) on business matters (1879); O M Binshtok’s remarks on the rules of behaviour in the synagogue and the community’s new bylaws (1886); business and payment documents (1880s-1900s); etc.
3. Documents on the construction of the Great Choral Synagogue and on the construction of various Jewish religious, public, and charitable institutions in St. Petersburg, in particular, letters addressed to the chair of the synagogue construction committee Baron G E (O) Gintsburg (1883) and Rabbi Avram Drabkin about the progress of construction and on the acquisition of seats in the future synagogue (1894); circular letters on collecting donations for the construction of synagogues and other buildings for community institutions on plots of land in St. Petersburg acquired by the community; donor lists and printed receipts showing contribution amounts (1894; 1899; 1901; undated); records of materials acquired and construction work performed, with expenses indicated, and with appended receipts and account balances (1887); synagogue tickets (1890s-1900s); etc.
4. A set of records on the establishment and activities of the Guardianship (Society) for the Care of Poor and Sick Jews, run by the board of the St. Petersburg Jewish community, and organised on the initiative of Avram Drabkin: a handwritten draft of this organisation’s bylaws, with corrections by Avram Drabkin, and documentation of the bylaws’ ratification by government institutions (undated); circular letters from Rabbi Avram Drabkin regarding donations to benefit indigent and infirm Jews of St. Petersburg; donation pledge registries; and lists and records of donors, including G E (O) and D G Gintsburg, S S Poliakova, L M Rosental’, F I Manasevich, A Zak, and M A and L A Varshavskii, with amounts paid indicated, and with printed receipts confirming donations made, and notations of funds distributed by the Society for the Care of Poor and Sick Jews on the occasion of various Jewish holidays (1880s-1900s); agreements concluded on behalf of the Society for the Care of Poor and Sick Jews with Jewish entrepreneurs for the supply of items for Jewish holidays, and documents and invoices regarding items ordered from various commercial enterprises of St. Petersburg (1890s-1900s); letters from wards of the Society for the Care of Poor and Sick Jews requesting material assistance, and letters of recommendation written for these applicants, including on business cards of I Vavel’berg, S A Trainin, A Kaplun, L Sh Khaimovich, etc.; correspondence with city hospitals on rendering assistance to indigent and infirm Jews, in particular, in the form of kosher food items (1900s); letters sent by Avram Drabkin to Jewish public figures inviting them to take part in sessions of the Society for the Care of Poor and Sick Jews (undated); an invitation to Avram Drabkin from the St. Petersburg Jewish community to a meeting of the Ladies’ Circle to discuss issues pertaining to the care of indigent and infirm Jews in St. Petersburg (1889); etc.
5. Records pertaining to Avram Drabkin’s official activities, including:
5.1 Correspondence regarding the appointment of candidates to various posts in the St. Petersburg Jewish community and on assisting its employees, which includes a collection of documents: petitions, applications, autobiographical information, newspaper clippings about musical compositions, telegrams and letters of recommendation in connection with competitions for cantorial positions in St. Petersburg synagogues, in particular, applications of Cantor H Hurk of Berlin, M Bloch of Stettin/Szczecin (including a recommendation from “the best German cantor Jacob Sarasohn”) (1880), Cantors M B Berlin of Mogilev and A Dunaevskii of Odessa (1888), as well as other applicants from Russia and Germany, and letters from their recommenders (1866-80); documents on the appointment of a ritual slaughterer, including an application from the Minsk townsman Sh B Gurvich submitted to A N Drabkin for the post of chief ritual slaughterer to replace the deceased I Khaikin; a ruling of members of the board of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg regarding appointment of a ritual slaughterer to replace the deceased I Khaikin, stating that “the future ritual slaughterer is obliged to cede half of his income … to Khaikin’s widow for the rest of her life,” and containing a list of candidates for the vacant post (1897); requests from D Khaikina, the widow of the former slaughterer, for half of the income of her husband’s successor in the position of slaughterer (1899); the minutes of a community board meeting at which an arrangement was discussed by which the new slaughterer Ezrielevyi would pay a third of his income to the widow of the slaughterer Khaikin; etc. (1899); a letter from Avram Drabkin requesting that financial assistance be provided to a synagogue employee named Mr. Baranovich in connection with his prolonged grave illness, and a list of donors (undated); a donation pledge registry to raise money for Mr. Ger, a Torah reader at the synagogue, on the occasion of his daughter’s wedding (1892); etc.
5.2 Correspondence with various state institutions, including the Department of Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Confessions, in particular, regarding the forwarding of a copy of the Christian oath as stipulated by law for foremen and deputy foremen of crafts administrations, and requesting that the oath be altered to accommodate persons of the Jewish faith, and asking that a draft of such an altered document, in Russian, be submitted to the department (1901); regarding the establishment of the post of rabbi for Jewish servicemen (1907); the forwarding of various documents and pamphlets in Hebrew and Yiddish to be translated, and reports as to their contents (1902, 1906); and requests for “visits to the department for clarifications regarding service-related matters” (1897, 1898, 1899); etc.; correspondence with the office of the prosecutor of the St. Petersburg Judicial Court and with civilian and military court investigators regarding the translation of Jewish prisoners’ letters written in Yiddish (1870s-1900s), as well as materials pertaining to investigations, including translations of Hebrew articles from the newspaper Ha-Melits, whose editors had been accused of publishing defamatory material (1879); with the Department for the Preservation of Public Security and Order in the Capital (a unit of the apparatus of the St. Petersburg city prefect) regarding the translation of various documents and pamphlets in Yiddish and Hebrew in connection with censorship issues (1887, 1888, 1889, 1893, 1894, 1898-90); with Petersburg justices of the peace regarding the administration of oaths to Jewish defendants and witnesses, as well as to Jews involved in divorce proceedings (1906-07); with officials of the St. Petersburg Corrections Division regarding the censorship of prisoners’ letters written in Yiddish or Hebrew (1900s); with the administration of the St. Petersburg Obstetrics Institute on administering the oath to students graduating and receiving the title of midwife (1886).
5.3 Documents on Avram Drabkin’s fulfilment of stipulations of Jews’ last wills and testaments, in particular, an excerpt from the will of A L Frantsynovich in which funds are allocated to the Sestroretsk Jewish burial society (hevra kadisha) and to a yeshiva in Jerusalem; etc. (1906); an excerpt from the last will and testament of the tradeswoman D A Tomina stipulating donations from her estate to the Volkovo Jewish cemetery, yeshivas in Jerusalem, Vil’na, and Mir (Grodno province), Talmud-Torahs on the Vyborg side of St. Petersburg, the release of funds to the crown rabbi of Riga, etc. (c. 1901); etc.
5.4 Letters sent to Avram Drabkin requesting funeral services at the Grand Choral Synagogue and his participation in funerals, including from the council of the Poltava Jewish hospital regarding a memorial service in memory of the late philanthropist I S Varshavskaia (1883); from the sculptor I Ia Gintsburg, with a notification of the death of I I Levitan and of arrangements for memorial services for the artist (1902); from Poltava Rabbi L M Zaydiner requesting Avram Drabkin’s participation in the funeral of the public figure H L Henzel (undated); etc.; invitations to various public events, in particular, from the Ladies’ Committee, which was in charge of the St. Petersburg Jewish Orphanage, requesting Avram Drabkin’s attendance at an examination to be taken by pupils of the orphanage (1876); from the St. Petersburg Hevra Shas Society for the Study the Mishnah, inviting him to take part in celebrating the conclusion of study of tractates of the Mishnah (1896); etc.
5.5 Letters and telegrams about the appointment of rabbis in various Jewish communities of the Russian Empire, including in the cities of Batumi (1899) and Sevastopol (1890); on the resolution of various issues, in particular, from M B Chereikin on organising a Jewish house of worship in Batumi, and on procedures for elections to its board (1899); from Zhitomir Rabbi B Bernshtein on various orders given by the authorities in connection with the High Holidays (1889); from the Jewish community of Irkutsk, requesting that he send a printed and handwritten copy of the bylaws of the Jewish burial society or cemetery of St. Petersburg (1900).
5.6 Correspondence between Avram Drabkin and Jewish community of St. Petersburg officials G B Sliozberg, D G Gintsburg and M A Varshavskii and the Voronezh Crown Rabbi A Feigin about designing and publishing Jewish calendars (1888-1913); etc.
6. Materials on the philanthropic activities of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg and on Avram Drabkin’s involvement therein, including:
6.1 Letters and telegrams addressed to Avram Drabkin containing requests for financial assistance in connection with fires, including from the chair of the Fire Victims’ Committee of the town of Khislavichi (Mogilev province) (1889), the Temporary Committee to Assist Fire Victims in the town of Kobrin (1896), the Pruzhany (Grodno province) county marshal of the nobility, and the Committee to Assist Fire Victims in the city of Pruzhany (1899); from residents of the cities of Rogachev (Mogilev province) and Bobruisk (Minsk province), and donation pledge registries to benefit fire victims of the city of Bobruisk (1900s); letters from representatives of the burial society (hevra kadisha) of the city of Novaya Ladoga (1886) and the finance board of the Staraia Russa Jewish house of worship (1904, 1906) requesting “assistance in the celebration of Pesach”; etc.
6.2 A collection of materials on the organising of Jewish educational institutions and of aid to enable Jewish students to study at higher and secondary educational institutions of St. Petersburg, including a donation pledge registry to raise money for the Dr. Abraham Harkavy School Fund of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE), which would go to benefit the Petersburg Jewish School, and a statement by the school’s director, L M Bramson, on the receipt of the collected funds (1896); a letter on the establishment in Mogilev of an “agricultural farm to provide instruction to Jewish orphans and indigent children in farming, horticulture, and gardening” (1894), etc.; documents on the granting of funding and scholarships to students, including applications from candidates for financial assistance, and documents and certificates issued to them by the board of the St. Petersburg Obstetrics Institute (run by the Department of Institutions of Empress Mariia), the Midwifery Institute (run under the auspices of Her Imperial Majesty Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna), the office of the Municipal Clinical Hospital, etc., as well as recommendations from the Jewish communities of various cities and from individuals that describe the property and financial status of parents of students enrolled in these medical educational institutions (1881-91).
6.3 Documents on the rendering of material and financial assistance to Jewish servicemen and their families, in particular, correspondence on these issues with various military institutions, regiment offices and commanders, etc. (1884-1905); lists of middle- and lower-rank servicemen, as well as military doctors, “of the Judaic confession” having served in the Russian Army (1886-1903), including in units in combat during the Russo-Japanese War, who had been treated for injuries in hospitals or were discharged from service with the requisite documentation (1904-5); letters to indigent Jewish servicemen about providing them with monetary grants; information on “Passover provisions” sent to military units for Jewish servicemen and their families (1870s-1900s); correspondence with the Bureau to Assist Needy Families of Jewish Warriors (1905); donation pledge registries and records on fundraising to support Jewish military personnel, including donations made by Baron G E (O) Gintsburg (1878); etc.
6.4 Materials on the rendering of charitable assistance to Jewish inmates in St. Petersburg prisons, in particular, correspondence with administrations of judicial and correctional institutions on providing legal and financial assistance to Jews sentenced to various terms of imprisonment or exiled to remote areas of the Russian Empire, and lists of Jewish inmates of various prisons of the city (1881-1906); letters from Jewish arrestees requesting Jewish religious items: tallises, tefillin, prayer books, Jewish calendars, and requesting kosher meals and matzah for Passover; and applying for monetary grants (1881-1904); pledge registries and records on the collection of donations, including to the Committee to Provide Prayer Books to Jewish Prisoners (1906); donor lists; invoices for kosher items and prayer books (1896-1906); and receipts certifying that prisoners had been provided with “liturgical materials, religious literature, and kosher food during Jewish holidays” (1904).
6.5 Grant applications of particular individuals, and letters of recommendation for these applicants (1890-1902), as well as letters on the provision of various services, among them: from the Vilkomir (now Ukmergė, Lithuania) Townsmen’s Administration requesting delivery of a passport to a townsman named Kliachko (1889); from A I Papernyi of the city of Plotsk/Płock (Plotsk province) requesting assistance for the writer and poet Yitskhok Leybush Peretz, who was planning a trip to St. Petersburg to “petition the Ministry of Justice regarding his case” (1890); on the registration of Ia. Markus as one of the certified ritual slaughterers in the city (1897); from T Zhebin, requesting assistance in obtaining the release of his son, the student G Zhebin, who had been arrested and imprisoned in the Spasskaia prison (1907); etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Avram (Abraham) Notovich Drabkin (1844-1917) was a rabbi and public figure. He studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva; in 1861 he entered the Vil’na Rabbinical Seminar, from which he graduated in 1869. From 1869 to 1871 he taught at a Jewish school in Vil’na. In 1871, he received a scholarship from the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE) and was sent to the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau to prepare for the rabbinate. He simultaneously attended classes at the University of Breslau, studying philosophy, history, theology and Oriental studies under the guidance of the renowned Professors Heinrich Graetz, Zecharias Frankel and others. He was a contributor to the monthly Monatsschrift, in which he published several articles on Jews in Russia, Vestnik russkikh evreev (the Russian Jews’ Herald), and other periodicals, and he was also involved in editing the Russian translation of The Worldview of Talmudists. A Codex of Religious and Moral Teachings as Excerpted from the Primary Books of Rabbinic Writing (ed. L O Levanda; St. Petersburg, 1874). In 1875, he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau and the University of Breslau with the title of doctor of philosophy. In the same year, the board of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg invited him to assume the post of crown rabbi to replace the deceased Avraham Neiman and in 1876 he was confirmed in this post. From then until his retirement (due to deteriorating health) in 1907, he took an active role in establishing and developing numerous institutions of the St. Petersburg Jewish community, including the Guardianship for the Poor and Sick Jews of St. Petersburg; he was also involved in selecting the location for the construction of the Great Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg, designing its building, coordinating with construction experts, fundraising for its construction and drafting plans for the arrangement of synagogue affairs and other documents necessary to ensure the functioning of the synagogue.
A N Drabkin was involved in the operations of several commissions on “the Jewish question,” in particular, from 1883 on, he served as one of the “experts” of the High Commission for the Review of Current Legislation on the Jews (the Palen Commission), and for all intents and purposes served as “learned Jew” (until the appointment of L Kreps) for the Department of the Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Confessions, and also took part in the reform of Jewish religious life as conceived by A N Mosolov, director of this department. He headed the St. Petersburg Jewish community’s delegation at the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in 1896. He spoke out against antisemitism and pogroms in his sermons, and made appeals to the imperial authorities to take measures against these phenomena. After the Balta pogrom in 1882, on his initiative, the Second Congress of Representatives of Jewish Communities was convened in St. Petersburg. He devoted considerable effort to educational and charitable activities: from 1880 on, he served as a member of the interim committee for the founding of the Society for Handicraft and Agricultural Work among the Jews of Russia (ORT); in 1900, he became a member of the OPE, and was also elected chair of the pedagogical council of the OPE School and served as a member of its library commission; from 1909, he was editor of the rabbinical section of the Russian-Jewish Encyclopedia (Evreiskaia entsiklopediia) published by Brokhaus and Efron; etc.
Avram Drabkin’s main publications: Fragmenta commentarii ad Pentateuchum Samaritano-arabicisex (Leipzig, 1875); Die russische Gesetzgebung in Bezug auf die Juden // Monatsschrift, 1875; “A thanksgiving discourse at the St. Petersburg Temporary Synagogue on 19 February 1880 on the solemn jubilee day of twenty-five years of the reign of Emperor Alexander II, delivered by Rabbi Dr. A. Drabkin” (St. Petersburg, 1880); “A discourse on the consecration of the new premises of the Jewish Orphanage in St. Petersburg, delivered by Rabbi Dr. A. Drabkin on 26 November 1879, on the anniversary of the death of the orphanage’s founder, Baroness Anna Geselevna Gintsurg” (St. Petersburg, 1880); and “Discourses upon the burial of the body and commemoration of the soul of the deceased Abram Moiseevich Varshavskii, delivered by St. Petersburg Rabbi Dr. A. N. Drabkin” (St. Petersburg, 1912).
- Access points: locations:
- Batumi
- St Petersburg
- Access points: persons/families:
- Baranovich
- Drabkin, Avram
- Frantsynovich, A L
- Tomina, D A
- Subject terms:
- Agriculture
- Aid and relief
- Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity
- Burial
- Cemeteries
- Censorship
- Ceremonial objects
- Correspondence
- Crown rabbis
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Education--Students
- Education--Talmud Torah
- Education--Yeshivot
- Financial records
- Hazanim
- Health and medical matters
- Health and medical matters--Hospitals
- Health and medical matters--Midwives
- Hebrew periodicals
- Hevrah kadisha
- Jewish community
- Jewish holidays
- Jewish languages
- Jewish languages--Yiddish
- Jewish oath
- Jewish soldiers
- Kashrut
- Legal matters
- Literature
- Literature--Writers, poets, and playwrights
- Marriage and divorce
- Military
- Music
- Newspaper clippings
- Orphanages
- Passports and visas
- Prisoners
- Rabbis
- Ritual slaughter
- Synagogues
- Trade and commerce
- Vital records
- Wills
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single inventory; currently in progress.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
