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Transferring my own work from Wikipedia onto here.
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{short description|Hebrew scholar and writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Reuven Fahn
| image = Reuven Fahn Galicia (Poland) 1908 (cropped).png
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption = Fahn in 1908
| birth_name = Reuven Fahn (ראובן פאהן)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|02|21|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death year and age|1939|1878}} or {{death year and age|1944|1878}}
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Reuven Fahn''' ({{lang-he|ראובן פאהן}} 1878{{spnd}}1939 or 1944) was a Polish Jewish scholar, writer, historian, ethnographer and epigraphist.<ref name = "yivo">{{Cite web|url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Fahn_Reuven|title=YIVO | Fahn, Re'uven|website=yivoencyclopedia.org}}</ref><ref name = "kiz">{{cite journal|url=https://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/02699-files/02699200.pdf|title=Scholar, Zionist, and Man of Letters: Reuven Fahn (1878–1939/1944) in the Karaite Community of Halicz|last=Kizilov|first=Mikhail|journal=Jewish History Quarterly|year=2012|issue=4|pages=470–489}}</ref>
==Early life==
Reuven Fahn was born on 21 February 1878 in the village of [[Starunia]] located near the small town of [[Sołotwina]] in the southeastern part of [[Austrian Galicia]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin">{{Cite journal|url=https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/ka/article/view/4043|title=The Reuven Fahn Collection | Karaite Archives|via=pressto.amu.edu.pl}}</ref> Fahn's father, Avraham ha-Levi, was a manager in a mine, while his mother, Zissel, was a descendant of Rabbi David ha-Levi Segal, who had served as a [[Rav]] in both [[Kraków]] and [[Lviv|Lwow]].<ref name = "govrin"/> Due to his parents' standing, Fahn received a good childhood education and was mainly influenced during this time by the ''[[Tanakh]]'', modern and classical [[Hebrew literature]], and various works that were translated into [[German language|German]] from other languages. Fahn was able to speak and write [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[German language|German]], [[Yiddish]], [[Polish language|Polish]], and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] by the age of 15.<ref name = "kiz"/> In 1897, at age 19, Fahn married Rachel Keren and moved to his wife's hometown, the Polish city of [[Halicz]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In Halicz, Fahn was influenced by the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite Jewish]] community and their unique culture, which became apparent in many of Fahn's subsequent writings and literary works.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/>
In Halicz, either Fahn or his wife's family owned a successful little shop, which allowed Fahn to devote his spare time to scholarly pursuits.<ref name = "kiz"/> He often traveled to Lwow, the [[capital city|capital]] of Galicia, and met important Jewish intellectuals such as [[Yosef Haim Brenner]], Moses Kleinmann, and Gershom Bader there.<ref name = "kiz"/> In addition, Fahn's little shop in Halicz, where he collected any Jewish newspapers and periodicals that he could find, became a meeting place for local intellectuals.<ref name = "kiz"/> In 1911, he joined the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]] [[Religious Zionism|Religious Zionist]] organization and was one of the founders of the Galician branch of this organization.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/> Later that same year, he was elected as a Mizrachi delegate to the Tenth [[World Zionist Congress]] in Berlin.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/>
==Later life==
As the [[Imperial Russian Army]] was advancing into [[eastern Galicia]] after the start of World War I in 1914, Fahn, along with many other [[Galician Jews]], fled to [[Vienna]], the capital of [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn enjoyed the libraries and scholarly life in Vienna during his time there, with him working as a librarian at the Adat Yisrael Jewish library until he was drafted for service into the [[Austro-Hungarian army]] on 1 December 1914.<ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> His [[military service]] ended on 2 November 1918, with Austria-Hungary's monarchy soon being overthrown and Austria-Hungary soon ceasing to exist.<ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Due to his house and property in Halicz being destroyed as a result of World War I, Fahn decided to move to [[Ivano-Frankivsk|Stanisławów]] (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk), a Galician regional center that was larger than Halicz but smaller than Vienna.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In Stanisławów, he was appointed secretary to the National Council of Galician Jewry during the short existence of the [[West Ukrainian National Republic]] and remained in this position until the Polish government abolished the council in either May or June 1919.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/><ref name=museum/> Afterwards, Fahn continued his commercial, scholarly, literary, and political work, but as a Polish citizen.<ref name = "kiz"/>
During a 1924 trip to the [[Mandatory Palestine]], Fahn founded a [[colony]] for Galician Zionist emigrants there.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn himself considered immigrating to Palestine the following year, but ultimately decided not to due to his fear that Palestine would soon have an economic crisis.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Ultimately, the decision of Fahn and many other Galician Zionists to stay in Poland ended up being a fatal one, due to the subsequent Holocaust decimating most of Poland's Jewish population.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In 1930, Fahn maintained a correspondence with [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]].<ref name = "kiz"/>
==Writings and literary works==
During his career, Fahn wrote 14 separate monographs and brochures and more than 200 articles and reports in Hebrew, Yiddish, and German.<ref name = "kiz"/> Fahn's writings can be divided into two roughly equal parts, one part dedicated to the [[Haskalah]] (Jewish Enlightenment) and [[Zionism]], the other part devoted to the history, epigraphy, and ethnography of the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite Jews]] (Karaites) and their relations with [[Rabbinic Jews]] (Rabbinites) in Galicia and elsewhere.<ref name = "kiz"/> Many of the sources that Fahn used for his research, such as tombstone inscriptions, manuscripts, and architectural monuments, were subsequently lost or destroyed.<ref name = "kiz"/> Fahn's works on the Karaites were sometimes [[Plagiarism|plagiarized]] by other Jewish authors.<ref name = "kiz"/> They were also not necessarily viewed by the Karaites favorably since Fahn often portrayed his Karaite characters in a bad, poor, and/or unflattering light in his various literary works.<ref name = "kiz"/>
==Personal life==
Fahn and his first wife had two girls.<ref name = "govrin"/> His wife died when he was 25 years old.<ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn's eldest daughter Hana was subsequently murdered in the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], leaving two daughters of her own who survived.<ref name = "govrin"/> In 1905, Fahn remarried to a woman from the city of [[Bolechow]], with whom he had a son and a daughter.<ref name = "govrin"/> Yafa, Fahn's daughter from his second marriage, died at age nine while Fahn and his family were living in [[Vienna]].<ref name = "govrin"/> Yosef, the sickly son from Fahn's second marriage, eventually had a son of his own but he and his entire family were murdered during the Holocaust.<ref name = "govrin"/>
Fahn's exact year and date of death are not known; 1939, 1940, and 1944 have all been proposed as possibilities.<ref name = "kiz"/> One report states that he was arrested and killed by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] for Zionist activities a short time before the start of World War II.<ref name=museum>{{cite web |url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/he/c6/e231144/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%A4%D7%90%D7%94%D7%9F_%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9F|title=פאהן, ראובן|trans-title=Fahn, Reuven|language=English|publisher=[[Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]]|year=1996|accessdate=24 November 2020}}</ref><ref name = "govrin"/> Another, possibly more reliable report states that he was rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their local Ukrainian collaborators in Stanisławów at the age of 66 in 1944.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/>
==Selected bibliography==
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGgHAQAAIAAJ|year=1896|title=בית ישראל: שיר־לאומי|trans-title=House of Israel: A national poem|last1=פאהן|first1=ראובן}} (self-pub.)
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwUOAAAAIAAJ|title=בזמן הזה: שיר|trans-title=At This Time: A poem|year=1897|last1=(הלוי)|first1=ראובן פאהן}} (self-pub.)
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4qHEDAEACAAJ|title=תקופת ההשכלה בוינה: ציור תולדתי-תרבותי של נושאיה בחיים ובספרות בלוית התהוותה ודברי ימיה|trans-title=The Enlightenment Period in Vienna: A historical-cultural picture of its subjects in life and literature|year=1909|publisher=M. Heckel}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AQOAAAAIAAJ|title=יוסלי טגלשר: ספור־אגדה לבני הנעורים|trans-title=Yosli Tegelsher: A fairy tale for teenagers|year=1922|publisher=Snunit}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXWotAEACAAJ|title=מחיי הקראים: ציורים וטפוסים|trans-title=From the Life of the Karaites: Depictions and Types|language=Hebrew|year=1924|publisher=Hertz}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2o1AAAAIAAJ|title=געשיכטע פון דער יודישער נאציאנאל-אויטאנאמיע: אינ'ם פעריאד פון דער מערב-אוקראינישער רעפובליק|language=Yiddish|trans-title=History of Jewish National Autonomy: The period of the Western Ukrainian Republic|year=1933|publisher=Koltar}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdS-xAEACAAJ|title=מבחר כתבים|language=Hebrew|trans-title=Selected Writings|publisher=Israel Writers Association, Masada Publishing|year=1969}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* Govrin, Nurit. [https://doi.org/10.14746/ka.2014.2.01 ''The Reuven Fahn Collection''], [[Tel Aviv University]], 2014
{{short description|Hebrew scholar and writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Reuven Fahn
| image = Reuven Fahn Galicia (Poland) 1908 (cropped).png
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption = Fahn in 1908
| birth_name = Reuven Fahn (ראובן פאהן)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|02|21|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death year and age|1939|1878}} or {{death year and age|1944|1878}}
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Reuven Fahn''' ({{lang-he|ראובן פאהן}} 1878{{spnd}}1939 or 1944) was a Polish Jewish scholar, writer, historian, ethnographer and epigraphist.<ref name = "yivo">{{Cite web|url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Fahn_Reuven|title=YIVO | Fahn, Re'uven|website=yivoencyclopedia.org}}</ref><ref name = "kiz">{{cite journal|url=https://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/02699-files/02699200.pdf|title=Scholar, Zionist, and Man of Letters: Reuven Fahn (1878–1939/1944) in the Karaite Community of Halicz|last=Kizilov|first=Mikhail|journal=Jewish History Quarterly|year=2012|issue=4|pages=470–489}}</ref>
==Early life==
Reuven Fahn was born on 21 February 1878 in the village of [[Starunia]] located near the small town of [[Sołotwina]] in the southeastern part of [[Austrian Galicia]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin">{{Cite journal|url=https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/ka/article/view/4043|title=The Reuven Fahn Collection | Karaite Archives|via=pressto.amu.edu.pl}}</ref> Fahn's father, Avraham ha-Levi, was a manager in a mine, while his mother, Zissel, was a descendant of Rabbi David ha-Levi Segal, who had served as a [[Rav]] in both [[Kraków]] and [[Lviv|Lwow]].<ref name = "govrin"/> Due to his parents' standing, Fahn received a good childhood education and was mainly influenced during this time by the ''[[Tanakh]]'', modern and classical [[Hebrew literature]], and various works that were translated into [[German language|German]] from other languages. Fahn was able to speak and write [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[German language|German]], [[Yiddish]], [[Polish language|Polish]], and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] by the age of 15.<ref name = "kiz"/> In 1897, at age 19, Fahn married Rachel Keren and moved to his wife's hometown, the Polish city of [[Halicz]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In Halicz, Fahn was influenced by the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite Jewish]] community and their unique culture, which became apparent in many of Fahn's subsequent writings and literary works.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/>
In Halicz, either Fahn or his wife's family owned a successful little shop, which allowed Fahn to devote his spare time to scholarly pursuits.<ref name = "kiz"/> He often traveled to Lwow, the [[capital city|capital]] of Galicia, and met important Jewish intellectuals such as [[Yosef Haim Brenner]], Moses Kleinmann, and Gershom Bader there.<ref name = "kiz"/> In addition, Fahn's little shop in Halicz, where he collected any Jewish newspapers and periodicals that he could find, became a meeting place for local intellectuals.<ref name = "kiz"/> In 1911, he joined the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]] [[Religious Zionism|Religious Zionist]] organization and was one of the founders of the Galician branch of this organization.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/> Later that same year, he was elected as a Mizrachi delegate to the Tenth [[World Zionist Congress]] in Berlin.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/>
==Later life==
As the [[Imperial Russian Army]] was advancing into [[eastern Galicia]] after the start of World War I in 1914, Fahn, along with many other [[Galician Jews]], fled to [[Vienna]], the capital of [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn enjoyed the libraries and scholarly life in Vienna during his time there, with him working as a librarian at the Adat Yisrael Jewish library until he was drafted for service into the [[Austro-Hungarian army]] on 1 December 1914.<ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> His [[military service]] ended on 2 November 1918, with Austria-Hungary's monarchy soon being overthrown and Austria-Hungary soon ceasing to exist.<ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Due to his house and property in Halicz being destroyed as a result of World War I, Fahn decided to move to [[Ivano-Frankivsk|Stanisławów]] (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk), a Galician regional center that was larger than Halicz but smaller than Vienna.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In Stanisławów, he was appointed secretary to the National Council of Galician Jewry during the short existence of the [[West Ukrainian National Republic]] and remained in this position until the Polish government abolished the council in either May or June 1919.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/><ref name=museum/> Afterwards, Fahn continued his commercial, scholarly, literary, and political work, but as a Polish citizen.<ref name = "kiz"/>
During a 1924 trip to the [[Mandatory Palestine]], Fahn founded a [[colony]] for Galician Zionist emigrants there.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn himself considered immigrating to Palestine the following year, but ultimately decided not to due to his fear that Palestine would soon have an economic crisis.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> Ultimately, the decision of Fahn and many other Galician Zionists to stay in Poland ended up being a fatal one, due to the subsequent Holocaust decimating most of Poland's Jewish population.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/><ref name = "govrin"/> In 1930, Fahn maintained a correspondence with [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]].<ref name = "kiz"/>
==Writings and literary works==
During his career, Fahn wrote 14 separate monographs and brochures and more than 200 articles and reports in Hebrew, Yiddish, and German.<ref name = "kiz"/> Fahn's writings can be divided into two roughly equal parts, one part dedicated to the [[Haskalah]] (Jewish Enlightenment) and [[Zionism]], the other part devoted to the history, epigraphy, and ethnography of the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite Jews]] (Karaites) and their relations with [[Rabbinic Jews]] (Rabbinites) in Galicia and elsewhere.<ref name = "kiz"/> Many of the sources that Fahn used for his research, such as tombstone inscriptions, manuscripts, and architectural monuments, were subsequently lost or destroyed.<ref name = "kiz"/> Fahn's works on the Karaites were sometimes [[Plagiarism|plagiarized]] by other Jewish authors.<ref name = "kiz"/> They were also not necessarily viewed by the Karaites favorably since Fahn often portrayed his Karaite characters in a bad, poor, and/or unflattering light in his various literary works.<ref name = "kiz"/>
==Personal life==
Fahn and his first wife had two girls.<ref name = "govrin"/> His wife died when he was 25 years old.<ref name = "govrin"/> Fahn's eldest daughter Hana was subsequently murdered in the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], leaving two daughters of her own who survived.<ref name = "govrin"/> In 1905, Fahn remarried to a woman from the city of [[Bolechow]], with whom he had a son and a daughter.<ref name = "govrin"/> Yafa, Fahn's daughter from his second marriage, died at age nine while Fahn and his family were living in [[Vienna]].<ref name = "govrin"/> Yosef, the sickly son from Fahn's second marriage, eventually had a son of his own but he and his entire family were murdered during the Holocaust.<ref name = "govrin"/>
Fahn's exact year and date of death are not known; 1939, 1940, and 1944 have all been proposed as possibilities.<ref name = "kiz"/> One report states that he was arrested and killed by the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] for Zionist activities a short time before the start of World War II.<ref name=museum>{{cite web |url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/he/c6/e231144/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%A4%D7%90%D7%94%D7%9F_%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9F|title=פאהן, ראובן|trans-title=Fahn, Reuven|language=English|publisher=[[Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]]|year=1996|accessdate=24 November 2020}}</ref><ref name = "govrin"/> Another, possibly more reliable report states that he was rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their local Ukrainian collaborators in Stanisławów at the age of 66 in 1944.<ref name = "yivo"/><ref name = "kiz"/>
==Selected bibliography==
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NGgHAQAAIAAJ|year=1896|title=בית ישראל: שיר־לאומי|trans-title=House of Israel: A national poem|last1=פאהן|first1=ראובן}} (self-pub.)
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwUOAAAAIAAJ|title=בזמן הזה: שיר|trans-title=At This Time: A poem|year=1897|last1=(הלוי)|first1=ראובן פאהן}} (self-pub.)
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4qHEDAEACAAJ|title=תקופת ההשכלה בוינה: ציור תולדתי-תרבותי של נושאיה בחיים ובספרות בלוית התהוותה ודברי ימיה|trans-title=The Enlightenment Period in Vienna: A historical-cultural picture of its subjects in life and literature|year=1909|publisher=M. Heckel}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AQOAAAAIAAJ|title=יוסלי טגלשר: ספור־אגדה לבני הנעורים|trans-title=Yosli Tegelsher: A fairy tale for teenagers|year=1922|publisher=Snunit}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXWotAEACAAJ|title=מחיי הקראים: ציורים וטפוסים|trans-title=From the Life of the Karaites: Depictions and Types|language=Hebrew|year=1924|publisher=Hertz}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2o1AAAAIAAJ|title=געשיכטע פון דער יודישער נאציאנאל-אויטאנאמיע: אינ'ם פעריאד פון דער מערב-אוקראינישער רעפובליק|language=Yiddish|trans-title=History of Jewish National Autonomy: The period of the Western Ukrainian Republic|year=1933|publisher=Koltar}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdS-xAEACAAJ|title=מבחר כתבים|language=Hebrew|trans-title=Selected Writings|publisher=Israel Writers Association, Masada Publishing|year=1969}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* Govrin, Nurit. [https://doi.org/10.14746/ka.2014.2.01 ''The Reuven Fahn Collection''], [[Tel Aviv University]], 2014