Public figure and publicist.

After graduating from the Law and Economics faculties of St. Petersburg University, he went to study engineering in Munich. In his student years he was influenced by Zionist ideas, and participated actively in the Zionist-Territorialist movement. He was also a supporter of close contact with the Russian Socialist Revolutionary party. From 1908 he lived in the USA. After returning to Russia in January 1918, he took part in the development of ORT’s agricultural and co-operative programme. In 1920 he became a member of the Foreign Delegation and left Soviet Russia. In 1921 he was a founding member of the World ORT Union. Together with L. Bramson he took an active part in organising and promoting the collection of funds for needy Russian Jews. After Bramson’s death, he and A. Syngalowski, as co-presidents of ORT’s executive committee, oversaw the organisation’s work in the years during and following the Second World War.