Ilya Orshanski

Born in Ekaterinoslav (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine), Ilya Orshanski (Il’ia Orshanskii) was an author, journalist, and lawyer involved with Jewish intellectual circles in Odessa. An active writer for the Hebrew and Russian Jewish press, he was openly critical of the Russian government and its treatment of Jews. In 1871, for example, he boldly and publicly accused the government of supporting the pogroms that had ravaged Odessa that year. In response, the government shut down Den’ (The Day), the paper in which Orshanski’s editorial had been published. Orshanski’s essays—later collected and published posthumously—on the legal, economic, and social history of Jews of Russia were noted for their impartial, objective erudition and deep understanding of legal scholarship. His more general work on jurisprudence in Russia was held in high regard. Orshanski was an early advocate for the establishment of secular Jewish schools in the Yiddish language.