Joseph B. Brociner (; October 1846 – 1918) was a
Romanian Jewish jurist, activist, communal leader. He was active in the struggle for
Jewish emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It incl ...
as President of the Union of Hebrew Congregations of Romania.
Biography
Early life
Joseph Brociner was born in October 1846 to Idel Ber Brociner, the grandson of
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
ist
Abraham David Wahrman Abraham David Wahrman of Buchach (1770 at Nadvirna – 1840 at Buchach) (Hebrew: אברהם דוד מבוטשאטש), was a Galician Talmudist.
Biography
He began studying Talmud as a boy. When he was ten years old, Zvi Hirsch Karo, the author of ...
. From 1864 to 1866, Brociner studied law at the
University of Iași
The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romanian: ''Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza"''; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia Mih ...
, and during that time helped found the ''Uniunii israelite'', a Jewish defensive publication society.
In 1867 Brociner settled at
Galați
Galați (, , ; also known by other alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River. It has been the only port for the most par ...
as a merchant. He joined (1868) the Galați Lodge of the
Grand Orient de France
The Grand Orient de France (GODF) is the oldest and largest of several Freemasonry, Freemasonic organizations based in France and is the oldest in Continental Europe (as it was formed out of an older Grand Lodge of France in 1773, and briefly ab ...
Masonic Order, and as a Freemason was active in bringing about a modification of rituals, finally obtaining for himself the
thirty-third degree. At the time, he was the only Jew among the Freemasons of the Grand Orient to attain this degree.
Career
In 1873 Brociner was chosen president of the local committee of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle. Together with Leopold Stern of Bucharest, he was delegated in 1876 to represent Rumania at the conference of the Alliance Israélite Universelle for the defense of Jews in the Orient, held under the chairmanship of
Adolphe Crémieux
Isaac-Jacob Adolphe Crémieux (; 30 April 1796 – 10 February 1880) was a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice under the Second Republic (1848) and Government of National Defense (1870–1871). He served as presiden ...
at Paris. During the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877, Brociner was secretary of the committee for maintaining ambulances on the battlefield; and in April and May of 1878, he accompanied Adolph Stern to
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
to obtain the co-operation of their coreligionists in championing the cause of the Romanian Jews at the
Congress of Berlin. In June he was a member of the commission sent to Berlin to furnish the congress of the European powers with information on the
Romanian question. In August 1878, along with
Benjamin F. Peixotto
Benjamin Franklin Peixotto (November 13, 1834 – September 18, 1890) was a Jewish-American lawyer and diplomat.
Life
Peixotto was born on November 13, 1834 in New York City, New York City, New York, the son of Dutch immigrant and physician Dan ...
, American
consul-general at
Lyons
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
, he represented the Romanian Jews at the second conference of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, held at Paris.
Brociner accompanied his brother, (another brother, , was secretary to
King Charles of Romania), to Vienna, Berlin, and Paris (1879), in order to further the interests of the Romanian Jews in these cities. He was president of the Jewish community of Galați in 1874, 1878, 1884, and 1893. In 1884 he was vice-president of the Galați committee for
establishing Jewish settlements in
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
which were afterward taken under the protection of
Baron Edmond de Rothschild
Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...
of Paris.
The Union of Romanian Jewish Congregations was due to Brociner's initiative, and in recognition of his services he was unanimously elected first president. In addition to many articles on the Jewish question, and various reports published by the
B'nai B'rith Lodge, Brociner wrote a pamphlet entitled ''Law of Moadim (Days of Meeting)''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brociner, Joseph
1846 births
1918 deaths
Romanian Zionists
Romanian Jews
Hovevei Zion
Romanian Freemasons
Romanian activists
Jewish activists