Bernstein, Nathan Osipovitch

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BERNSTEIN, NATHAN OSIPOVITCH

BERNSTEIN, NATHAN OSIPOVITCH (1836–1891), Russian physiologist and civic leader. The grandson of Solomon Eger, chief rabbi of the Posen provinces, Bernstein moved to Odessa in 1849 with his parents. He studied medicine at the University of Moscow. From 1871 he lectured without official appointment at the New-Russian University at Odessa (1865). He wrote a textbook on physiology, and succeeded Leo Pinsker as editor of the Russian-Jewish periodical Zion. Bernstein was president of the Medical Society of Odessa for 14 years, and became both a city councillor and an honorary Justice of the Peace. He was a director of the Odessa Talmud Torah.