Dubnow, Simon (1860-1941). Papers.

Historian, political thinker, educator, collector of historical and ethnographic documents.  One of the founders and directors of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society in St. Petersburg and editor of its quarterly Yevreyskaya Starina.  Co-founder of the YIVO Institute in Vilna and chairman of its Executive Board.  After the Kishinev pogrom, Dubnow was among those who called for an active Jewish self-defense.  He supported Jewish participation in the 1905 elections to the Duma.  Active in the Society for Equal Rights of the Jewish People in Russia. Founder in 1906 of the Jewish People's or "Folkist" party which existed until 1930s in the Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Baltic countries.    

Dubnow coined the term "autonomism," a theory of Jewish nationalism and cultural autonomy in the Diaspora in which Yiddish was  considered one of the instruments of autonomy and the Jewish national language of the future.  Dubnow authored a number of significant and pioneering works in Jewish history.  Topics included general Jewish history, Polish and Russian Jewry, Jewish communities and Hasidism.    

Dubnow was one of the first to encourage and initiate the collection and preservation of Jewish historical documents.  He corresponded with communities throughout Russia and Poland, appealing for community registers, memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, folklore materials, rare books and Hasidic literature.  Large numbers of rare documents were sent to Dubnow in response to this appeal.    

Born in Mstislavl, Byelorussia.  Lived in St. Petersburg, Odessa, Vilna.  In 1922 left Russia and settled in Berlin.  In I933,  settled in Riga, Latvia.  In 1941, Dubnow was killed by a Gestapo officer during the deportation of the Jewish community of Riga to a death camp.