Goldberg, ben Zion
GOLDBERG, BEN ZION
GOLDBERG, BEN ZION (Benjamin Waife ; 1895–1972), Yiddish journalist. Born in Golshany (Lithuania), a descendant of prominent rabbinical families, Goldberg studied at the Lida and Volozhin yeshivot before immigrating to the U.S. in 1907. In 1917 he married the youngest daughter of *Sholem Aleichem. He studied psychology at Columbia University and wrote articles on that subject and on foreign policy for the daily Der Tog, of which he became managing editor (1924–40). He helped to organize the U.S. branch of yivo. As a daily columnist for more than 40 years, he was influential and controversial, particularly with his pro-Soviet orientation – which ended with the purges that exterminated Soviet Jewish leaders. His books in English include Sacred Fire: The Story of Sex in Religion (1930), and The Jewish Problem in the Soviet Union (1961).
bibliography:
lynl, 3 (1960), 45–8. add. bibliography: I. Oren (ed.), Kratkaia evreĭskaia entsiklopediia, 2 (1982), 157.
[S.L./
Jerold C. Frakes (2nd ed.)]