Abraham Rhinewine (1887-1932) [1] [2] [3] was a Polish-born, Canadian-Jewish editor, publisher and author, among the most prominent Jewish journalists in Canada during his time. [4] He was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Mezhirech (Miedzyrzec), Poland and trained to be a rabbi, but at the age of 15, he became a socialist and, after attempting to unionize his father's factory, was sent to England to continue his secular education. [2] He later settled in North America, where he was to work briefly and unsuccessfully in the millinery industry in New York City. [2] He then settled in Toronto where he began his brief career as a journalist and scholar. He is the author of several books in Yiddish as well as English, as well as many journalistic articles in these languages, and was publisher and editor-in-chief of the Hebrew Journal (Der Yidisher Zshurnal), [5] a key Jewish newspaper in Toronto. Although he did not possess an advanced degree apart from a rabbinical certification from Poland and coursework from McMaster University (at that time in Toronto), [2] he taught courses in Judaism at the University of Toronto and was well regarded as a secular scholar. He was politically active as a Jew and passionately advocated the Zionist cause for a Jewish state in Palestine. Following an unfortunate ouster from his position at the newspaper, [2] he died May 19, 1932, [3] at age 44, of complications from diabetes. [2]
