Julius Davidovich Brutzkus or Judah Loeb Brutzkus or Joselis Bruckus ( he, יהודה ליבּ בֶּן־דָּוִד ברוצקוס, ''Yehuda Loeb ben David Brutzkus''; russian: Юлий Давидович Бруцкус; 1870, Palanga, Courland Governorate – January 27, 1951 in Tel Aviv) was a

Lithuanian Jew Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas o ...

ish historian, scholar, and politician. He was born in 1870 in Palanga, Courland Governorate,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(in present-day Lithuania). His brother was the economist Boris Brutzkus. Julius studied in Moscow at the gymnasium and the

University of Moscow M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. His family, along with thousands of other Jewish families, was expelled from the city in 1892 (see

May Laws Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) were proposed by the minister of internal affairs Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev and enacted on 15 May (3 May O.S.), 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Originally, regulations of ...

). He was able to continue his education and received his doctorate in 1894. Brutzkus took part in the Russian Jewish bibliographical work, "" (''Systematic Index of Literature concerning Jews'', "Sistematicheskiy Ukazatel Literatury o Yevreyakh"). Beginning in 1895, Brutzkus contributed to the Russian-Jewish periodical '' Voskhod''. In 1899 he was appointed assistant editor of that periodical. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Brutzkus authored a vast array of articles and books in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, Lithuanian, Polish, English, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, and French on the history of the Jews in Russia; he was particularly intrigued with the history of the Khazars and the early

Rus' Khaganate The Rusʹ Khaganate ( be, Рускі каганат, ''Ruski kahanat'', russian: Русский каганат, ''Russkiy kaganat'', uk, Руський каганат, ''Ruśkyj kahanat''), is the name applied by some modern historians to a ...

. He also wrote numerous works on the economic and political history of Eastern Europe and the cultural history of

Mizrahi Jew Mizrahi Jews ( he, יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () or ''Mizrachi'' () and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained i ...

ry. In 1923 he served as Minister for Jewish Affairs in the Lithuanian government and was elected to the Lithuanian Parliament in November of that year. Brutzkus was an ardent Zionist and encouraged Jews to engage in political action and self-defense.

Selected works

* B. D. Bruckus: »Ėkonomičeskija osnovy sovremennago političeskago krizisa Rossii« . e. Die ökonomischen Ursachen der gegenwärtigen politischen Krise Rußlands Russkij naučnyj institut RNI, Berlin, January 27, 1928 (i.e. Russian scientific institute) * "Pershi zvistki pro Evreev n Polshchi ta na Rusi". ''Nankovyi Zbirnyk.'' 24 (1927), pp. 3–11 * "Bukhara."

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langu ...

, vol. 4. Berlin 1929. p. 1126. * ''Der Handel der westeuropäischen Juden mit dem alten Kiev,'' in "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland", No. 2-3, Berlin 1931, pp. 97–11
in German
* "Di Geshikhte fun di Bergyiden oyf kavkaz." (History of the Jewish Mountaineers in Dagestan, Caucasia),

YIVO YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

Studies in History, vol.2. Vilna, 1937 (in Yiddish) * "The

Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

Origin of Ancient Kiev". ''

Slavonic and East European Review ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', the journal of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (University College London), is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Slavonic and East European Studies. It was establ ...

'', 22, 1944, pp. 108–124

External links

BRUTZKUS, JUDAH LOEB BEN DAVID
in the Jewish Encyclopedia
Dr. Julius Yehuda Brutzkus
public profile, with a comment of his grandson (a correction). In English
Joselis Bruckus (1870–1951)
In Lithuanian language {{DEFAULTSORT:Brutzkus, Julius 1870 births 1951 deaths People from Palanga People from Courland Governorate Jews from the Russian Empire Imperial Moscow University alumni Lithuanian Jews Minister for Jewish Affairs of Lithuania Jewish historians Jewish orientalists Khazar studies Lithuanian Zionists Orientalists from the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Members of the Seimas