Grosser, Bronislaw

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GROSSER, BRONISLAW

GROSSER, BRONISLAW (pseudonyms: Slawek ; Zelcer ; 1883–1912), lawyer born in Miechow, Poland; one of the second generation of *Bund leaders. The son of a lawyer, he became a leader of the Warsaw socialist youth while still at secondary school. His experience of antisemitism made him conscious of his Jewish identity, and influenced by Bundists from Lithuania, he joined the Bund. Grosser was among those who in 1906 consistently supported the independence of the Bund, being against its return to the Russian Social Democratic party. He was a member of the advisory committee of the Social Democratic group in the Fourth Duma (1912) and was elected to the central committee of the Bund. An incisive writer and fluent speaker, Grosser was outstanding among the relatively few intellectuals who joined the Bund in Poland at that time. He defined his task as "defense of the interests of the Jewish workers in Poland, and within this framework defense of the interests of the country."

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 1 (1926), 620–3; J.S. Hertz (ed.), Doyres Bundistn, 1 (1956), 319; Polski Slownik Biograficzny, 9 (1960–61), 6.

[Moshe Mishkinsky]