ABRAMOWITZ, EMIL

ABRAMOWITZ, EMIL (1864–1922), physician, one of the first Social Democrats in Russia. Abramowitz was born in Grodno and studied in France. He was active in the movement in Minsk and Kiev in the 1880s. His wide education, personal warmth, and persuasiveness as an exponent of socialism enabled him to influence numerous workers. The program he drew up for workers' circles was followed for a long time in the Jewish labor movement. Abramowitz was imprisoned for his political activities and spent many years in exile in Siberia, where he gained a reputation for his cultural activities and dedication to the medical profession. During World War I he served as an army doctor; in 1919 he was again imprisoned, as a Menshevik. The letters he wrote between 1914 and 1917 reveal concern over the fate of Russian Jewry and pessimism as to its future. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Deyateli Revolyutsionnogo Dvizheniya v Rossii (Bio-Bibliograficheskiy slovar), S.V.; E. Tcherikower, Historishe Shriftn, 3 (1939), 410 ff. (Moshe Mishkinsky)