Ben-Tsien Liber

Born in Iaşi, Romania, Ben-Tsion Liber (b. Libresko; his father was a founder of Yiddish theater) attended public schools and university in Bucharest. After serving in the Romanian army, he studied medicine in Vienna and psychology in Paris. In 1904, he moved to New York and worked as a physician and public health hygienist, becoming a leader of preventive care and holistic medicine. Liber wrote articles and books in Yiddish and English on hygiene, education, vegetarian diets, and art, as well as novellas and plays. He edited the Yiddish hygiene monthly Unzer gezunt from 1910 to 1917. Liber spent time at the radical Free Acres colony in New Jersey and was active in liberal political circles, vacillating among Labor Zionism, socialism, anarchism, and Communism throughout his life. His Dos geshlekhts lebn (The Sexual Life) was revised and printed in a second edition in 1918.