Binyamin Brawerman / Binyomen Rotberg

Bielsk Podlaski

Binyomen Biszko-Brawerman / Binyomen Rotberg

Reading the brief biography of Binyomen Biszko-Brawerman in the Bielsk Podlaski yizkor book reminded me of another Binyomen from Bielsk. I read about him in An Unchosen People by Kenneth B. Moss (Harvard University Press, 2021). The book explores the cultural and political environment in the shtetls of Europe during the escalating antisemitism of the interwar period. Central to the book are two works written under the pseudonym of Binyomen Rotberg. One is an autobiography written in response to a 1934 contest organized by YIVO's Max Weinreich. The other is Rotberg's response to Weinreich's subsequent analysis of the submitted autobiographies. In his response, Rotberg concurred with Weinreich's assessment that “every Jewish young person feels himself to be without a future” in Poland because of their dire situation.

Was Rotberg's real name Brawerman? To look for more information, I visited the website of the Center for Jewish History (of which YIVO is a part) to examine scans of his works. While scrolling through one of the PDF files, I came across a handwritten card that says in Yiddish “Binyomen Rotberg's Collection.” Below this, in English, it reads “Biszko Brawermen, Bielsk-Podl.” with the street address “ul Mickiewieze No. 127.”

I emailed Kenneth Moss to inquire if he had identified Binyomen Rotberg as Binyomen Biszko-Brawerman. In his response, Moss copied Dr. Rona Yona and Dr. Kamil Kijek, scholars who had previously worked with him and researched this question. Kijek stated that prior research had determined with 99% probability that Binyomen Rotberg was indeed Binyomen Biszko-Brawerman, but finding this card served as conclusive proof. Both he and Yona explained that the information on the card would have been submitted by Rotberg/Brawerman himself because participants in the YIVO contest were required to provide their true identity in a sealed envelope so they could be contacted if they won a prize.

A subsequent search turned up a postcard in another file. It was sent to YIVO with the same return address as above on the front and signed on the back in Yiddish as “Binyomin Rotberg (B. Brawerman).”

Binyamin Braverman Rotberg signature

Brightness and contrast of the images has been adjusted to improve legibility.
Click to see larger images.

In the postcard, Brawerman informs YIVO that he is happy to have his autobiography recognized and to be sent Max Weinreich’s Der veg tsu undzer yugnt (The Road to Our Youth; 1935). [Free copies were distributed to the 75 autobiographers cited in the book.]¹ He adds that much has happened since he wrote six months earlier. In particular, he has joined HeHalutz and familiarized himself with the full range of (left) Zionist organizations in Bielsk. He sympathizes with YIVO’s work and offers to write more about the youth scene in Bielsk for them, but asks them to send him stamps, because his economic situation does not allow him to buy postage. [YIVO’s Division of Youth Research encouraged their young correspondents to stay in touch – they continued to send autobiographies after the competition ended, as well as collected correspondences, literary works, and essays.]¹ (Thanks to Kenneth Moss for the translation.)

Brawerman's fate remains unknown. No record of his death or survival have been found, and this biography makes no mention of a life after Bielsk.

The last paragraph of the biography states that he was not able to leave a lasting legacy. However, the enduring significance of Brawerman's writing is evident in their continued use and relevance nine decades later. His work, and on a larger scale An Unchosen People, speaks not only of antisemitism but of dramatically conflicting Jewish responses to it. They included competing ideas of Zionism vs. Diasporism as an answer to the question of the future of Jews in Poland.

Understanding this period of time, and its similarities to the global wave of antisemitism facing us today, might help us make decisions and take actions necessary for a better future.

Andrew Blumberg
December 12, 2024

Sources:

1: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland, description of archival materials.

Address card - YIVO archive at the Center for Jewish History website. Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland, Record Group 4, Series 1, Subseries 1, "Binyomin Rotberg", Bielsk Podlaski, Yugfor #195, Folder 3542, Part 2, page 3. https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6069042

Postcard (incl. signature) - YIVO archive at the Center for Jewish History website. Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland, Record Group 4, Series 2, Incoming Correspondence and Envelopes, pages 11 and 12. https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6264536

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