Glusk (Glosk), Abraham Abba
GLUSK (Glosk), ABRAHAM ABBA
GLUSK (Glosk), ABRAHAM ABBA (second half of 18th century), Haskalah pioneer. According to one opinion, he was born in Glussk (Lublin province), and to another, in the town bearing the same name in the province of Minsk. He is also identified with the "Glusker Maggid" whose works were burned for heresy in the courtyard of the Vilna synagogue. Glusk, who acquired a wide knowledge of philosophy and secular learning, left his native land in search of free ideas. After a long period spent wandering from city to city, he reached Berlin where he met Moses *Mendelssohn. However he was persecuted by local Orthodox circles and the head of the Berlin community asked the authorities to expel him from the city on the pretext that he had no right of residence. Mendelssohn, however, who considered Glusk a profound thinker, enabled him to remain. Glusk later traveled in Germany, Holland, France, and England before returning home. His subsequent fate is unknown. The German poet A. von Chamisso wrote a poem dedicated to Glusk (1832).
bibliography:
Stanislavsky, in: Voskhod, 12 (1887), 122–8; Ha-Karmel (1871), 234–5; A. Kohut, Mendelssohn und seine Familie (1886), 51–53.