Drabkin, Abraham

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DRABKIN, ABRAHAM

DRABKIN, ABRAHAM (1844–1917), rabbi, born in Mogilev, Belorussia. After studying at the yeshivah of Volozhin and the rabbinical institute in Vilna, he was sent by the *Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews in Russia to the rabbinical seminary in Breslau, completing his dissertation, Fragmenta Commentarii ad Pentateuchum Samaritano-arabicum, in 1875. From 1876 to 1908 he served as Kazionny Ravin (government-appointed rabbi) of St. Petersburg. Drabkin was a member of the Provisional Committee for the Promotion of Crafts and Agriculture among the Jews in Russia. He took part in the conferences convened after the pogroms of 1881. He was editor of the rabbinical section for the first eight volumes of the Yevreyskaya Entsiklopediya (Russian Jewish encyclopedia).