Bikerman (Bickermann), Joseph
BIKERMAN (Bickermann), JOSEPH
BIKERMAN (Bickermann), JOSEPH (1867–1941), journalist active in Jewish political life. Born in Okny, Podolia, Bikerman graduated in philology at Odessa University in 1903. In an article written in 1902 in the monthly Russkoye Bogatstvo, he strongly opposed Zionism, and called upon Jews to join with progressive elements in Russia to help in the country's rebirth. His article aroused a controversy in which V. *Jabotinsky and B. *Borochov took part. He contributed to the democratic journal Yevreyskiy Mir, and wrote studies in Russian on the Pale of Settlement (Cherta yevreyskoy oszedlosti, 1911) and on Jews in the grain trade (Rol yevreyev v russkoy khlebnoy torgovle, 1912). After the Bolshevik revolution, Bikerman settled in Berlin. He was one of the founders of the short-lived "Patriotic Union of Russian Jews Abroad," which supported the ideal of the restoration of the Russian monarchy. His views on Jewish political problems are summarized in his Russian pamphlet on the self-knowledge of the Jew (K samopoznaniyu yevreya, 1939). He was the father of the historian Elias J. *Bickerman and the scientist Jacob J. *Bikerman.
bibliography:
B. Dinur, Bi-Ymei Milḥamah u-Mahpekhah (1960), 66–68; J. Frumkin (ed.), Russian Jewry (1966), index.