GOLDMAN, BERNARD

GOLDMAN, BERNARD (1841–1901), Polish patriot and militant supporter of assimilation. Goldman was born in Warsaw, where his father was a Hebrew maskil and owned a printing press; his grandfather Jacob was a rabbi in Amsterdam. Goldman played an active role in the Polish revolutionary movements against czarist rule. After the demonstration held in Warsaw in 1861, he was exiled to Siberia, but escaped and returned to Warsaw to take part in the uprising of 1863. After its suppression he went abroad, traveled through Germany, and reached Paris, where he contributed to the cause of the Polish émigrés. He went to Vienna in 1867 and completed his law studies. In 1870 he settled in Lemberg where he initiated an extensive program for promoting education among the Jewish masses in Galicia. He organized cultural activities, including courses and libraries for spreading Polish culture and combating the pro-Austrian centralist movement. In opposition to the aspirations of the Shomer Yisrael society of German orientation, he founded the rival Doreshei Shalom and published a newspaper Zgoda. This resulted in the establishment of the *Agudat Aḥim, which later became the most prominent center of assimilationist activity in Poland.

In 1876 Goldman took his seat in the national Sejm (parliament) of Galicia as the delegate for Lemberg and in 1883 was elected to the Lemberg municipal council. Goldman was also active within the framework of the community administration, founding an organization of artisans, Yad Ḥaruẓim. In particular he promoted the development of a school network, which was named after him. This network provided a Polish-oriented education combined with the teaching of religious observance.

bibliography:

eg, 4 (1956), 314–5; N.M. Gelber, Die Juden und der polnische Aufstand 1863 (1923), 221; M. Balaban, Dzieje Żydów w Galicji (1914); M. Bertold, Żydzi w powstaniu 1863 (1913), 21–22, 30–31; Estreicher, Almanach i leksykon żydostwa polskiego, 1 (1937), 67–69; J.K. Urbach, Udział żydów w walce o niepodległość Polski (1938), 102–3; 150–1; Polski słownik biograficzny, 8 (1959–60), 210–1.

[Moshe Landau]