Bross, Jacob
BROSS, JACOB
BROSS, JACOB (1883–1942), lawyer, a founder and leader of the *Jewish Social Democratic Party (zhpsd.) in Galicia. Bross became known as an orator for the party and the editor of its organ Social-Demokrat. The son of a tailor in Cracow, he was attracted to socialism when still at secondary school. His brother, Ignatius, was already active among Jewish workers during the 1890s. While still in the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia, Bross fought against assimilationist tendencies and campaigned for organizational autonomy of the Jewish workers in the party. After demobilization from the Austrian Army in 1918, he did not assume a political function in the Polish *Bund. He lived in Cracow and appeared as an advocate in political trials. He was also active in child and youth welfare. He died in the Holocaust in Kremenets. His essays on the history of the Jewish socialist movement in Galicia were published in Royter Pinkes, 2 (1921); a second essay in Historishe Shriften, 3 (1939) was reproduced in yivo Annual (5 (1950), 55–85).
bibliography:
I.S. Hertz (ed.), Doyres Bundistn, 2 (1956), 184–7; lnyl, 1 (1956), 445–6. add. bibliography: J. Bross, "Der onhojb fun der jiddisher aebeiter bawegung in Galicje," in: Historishe Shriften, 3 (yivo, 1939), 499; H. Piasecki, Sekcja zydowska ppsd i yzdowska partia socjalno-demokratyczna (1982), index.
[Moshe Mishkinsky]