Aleksander Kraushar

Born in Warsaw, Aleksander Kraushar was brought up in an affluent family, received a modern Polish-European education, and became a leading advocate for complete Jewish assimilation into Polish culture and nationhood. Studying law when the 1863 uprising against Russian rule in Poland broke out, Kraushar helped edit Prawda and Niepodległość, the rebellion’s journals. After the collapse of the insurrection, Kraushar completed his law degree, established a successful career practicing law in Warsaw, and married into the Polonized Jewish elite. An advocate of complete Jewish integration and assimilation into Polish society and culture, he contributed articles to the Polish-language Jewish integrationist journals Jutrzenka and Izraelita and hosted a salon that became a gathering place for Polish national cultural figures in Warsaw. Kraushar published historical works on Polish Jewish themes, legal scholarship, and poetry. In 1903, he converted to Catholicism.