Binyamin Brawerman / Binyomin Rotberg

Bielsk Podlaski

Binyamin Bushka-Brawerman / Binyomin Rotberg

Reading the brief biography of Binyamin Bushka-Brawerman in the Bielsk Podlaski yizkor book reminded me of another Binyomin from Bielsk, who I read about in An Unchosen People by Kenneth B. Moss (Harvard University Press, 2021). The book explores the cultural and political environment in the shtetls of Europe during the escalating antisemitism of the interwar period. Central to the book are two works written under the pseudonym of Binyomin Rotberg. The first is his submission to a 1934 autobiography contest organized by YIVO's Max Weinreich. The contest invited Jewish youth to submit autobiographies reflecting their lived experience. The second is Rotberg's response to Weinreich's subsequent analysis of the submitted autobiographies. In his response, Rotberg concurred with Weinreich's assessment that “every Jewish young person feels himself to be without a future” because of their dire situation facing antisemitism and hard economic times.

Was Rotberg's real name Brawerman? To look for more information, I visited the online archives of the Center for Jewish History (of which YIVO is a part) to examine scans of his works. While scrolling through one of the PDF files, I came across a handwritten card that says in Yiddish “Binyomin Rotberg's Collection.” Below that, it says “Biszko Brawerman, Bielsk-Podl.” with the street address “ul Mickiewieze No. 127.”

I emailed Kenneth Moss to inquire if he had identified Binyomin Rotberg as Binyamin Biszko-Brawerman. In his response, Moss copied Dr. Rona Yona and Dr. Kamil Kijek, scholars who had previously worked with him and researched this question. Kijek stated that prior research had determined with 99% probability that Binyomin Rotberg was indeed Binyamin Biszko-Brawerman, but finding this card served as conclusive proof. Both he and Yona explained that the information on the card would have been submitted by Rotberg/Brawerman himself because participants in the YIVO contest were required to provide their true identity in a sealed envelope so they could be contacted if they won a prize.

A subsequent search turned up a postcard in another file. It was sent to YIVO in Vilnius with the same return address as above and signed on the back in Yiddish as “Binyomin Rotberg (B. Brawerman).”

Binyamin Braverman Rotberg signature

Brightness and contrast of the images has been adjusted to improve legibility.
Click to see larger images.

In the postcard, dated January 24, 1935, Brawerman informs YIVO that he is happy to have his autobiography recognized in and be sent a copy of Max Weinreich’s Der veg tsu undzer yugnt [The Road to Our Youth, 1935]. [Free copies were distributed to the 75 autobiographers who were cited in the book.]¹ He adds that much has happened since he wrote six months earlier. In particular, he has joined HeHalutz² and familiarized himself with the full range of (left) Zionist organizations in Bielsk. [Records indicate that Brawerman was accepted into HeHalutz's hakhshara training program, a preparation for making aliyah and a prerequisite for receiving an immigration certificate to Eretz Israel in the British Mandate.] He sympathizes with YIVO’s work and offers to write more about the youth scene in Bielsk for them, but asks them to send him stamps, because his economic situation does not allow him to buy postage. [YIVO’s Division of Youth Research encouraged their young correspondents to stay in touch – they continued to send autobiographies after the competition ended, as well as collected correspondences, literary works, and essays.]³ Thanks to Kenneth Moss for the translation.

Brawerman kept his identity a secret by systematically changing the names of people and places in his autobiography and his letter to Weinreich. His secret held for nine decades and his fate remains unknown. No record of his death or survival have been found, and the biography makes no mention of a life after Bielsk. Yad Vashem has records of six Brawerman family members who were Holocaust victims.

The last paragraph of his biography states that Binyomin was not able to leave a lasting legacy. However, the enduring significance of his writing is evident in its continued use and relevance nine decades later. His reflections—once anonymous—now illuminate the fractured hopes of a generation. His voice, preserved through archival diligence, speaks to us still. His work, and on a larger scale An Unchosen People, speaks not only of antisemitism but of dramatically conflicting Jewish responses to it. They included opposing ideas of Zionism vs. Diasporism as an answer to the question of the Jewish future, sometimes resulting in physical violence among Jews.

Understanding this period of time, and its similarities to the global wave of antisemitism facing us today, might help us make decisions and take actions necessary for a better future.

Included in the Binyomin Rotberg file on the Center for Jewish History’s website are three family photographs. Two have handwritten notes on the back. The photo without a note could be a photo of him with his mother. (Binyomin was born in 1915. His mother died in 1921.)⁴ One photo is identified as his mother and grandfather. Another photo is identified as his aunt from Grodno, who he mentioned many times in his autobiography and his letter to Max Weinreich.⁵

Unlabeled, this may be Binyomin and his mother, who died in 1921.

"Auto 195. My grandfather's family from Chechanovitz [Ciechanowiec] with
his elder daughter (my mother)"⁶

“Autobiography No.195. (Pseudonym: Binyomin Rotberg). My aunt from Grodno.”⁷
[Referred to in his documents as Chava, she was his father Meir’s sister and is a recurring figure in his writings.
As noted above, these may not be their real names.]

Andrew Blumberg
December 12, 2024

Sources and Citations:

1, 3: YIVO's Autobiographies of Jewish Youth, description of archival materials.
2: HeHalutz: literally The Pioneer. See the chapters beginning in the Movements and Institutions in Bielsk section of the Bielsk yizkor book, including:

    - About “HeHalutz” and Pioneering in Bielsk
    - HeHalutz Hatzair as an Active and Activating Force
    - Additional Details to “HeHalutz Hatzair”
    - In the Hakhshara - in Bielsk
4, 5: “Płonęli gniewem,” Autobiografia młodego Żyda, ("They were burning with anger," Autobiography of a young Jew, containing Polish translations of Brawerman's submission to YIVO's autobiography contest and his letter responding to Weinreich's Der veg tsu undzer yugnt), Kamil Kijek, Jan 1, 2021, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA.
6, 7: Translation provided by Shimon Sporn, Holocaust Legacy and Family Biographer.

Address card and photographs - YIVO archive at the Center for Jewish History website. Autobiographies of Jewish Youth, Record Group 4, Series 1, Subseries 1, "Binyomin Rotberg," Bielsk Podlaski, Yugfor #195, Folder 3542, Part 2, pages 79-84. https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6069042

Postcard (incl. signature) - YIVO archive at the Center for Jewish History website. Autobiographies of Jewish Youth, Record Group 4, Series 2, Incoming Correspondence 1932-1939, pages 11 and 12. https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6264536

All materials presented are used in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Center for Jewish History.

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