Eisenstein, Julius (Judah David):

By: Herman Rosenthal , Peter Wiernik

Russian-American writer; born in Meseritz, government of Siedlec, Russian Poland, Nov. 21, 1855. He emigrated in 1872 to the United States, and settled in New York, in which city he still resides. Eisenstein was the first to translate into Hebrew and Yiddish the Constitution of the United States (New York, 1891). Other writings of his are: "Ma'amare Biḳḳoret," ib. 1897, and "The Classified Psalter" (Pesuḳe de-Zimrah), Hebrew text with a new translation (1899). He also made an attempt to translate and explain a modified text of the Shulḥan 'Aruk.

Eisenstein took a prominent part in the controversy concerning the Kolel Ameriḳa, a society for the collection of funds for the poor Jews of Palestine, and was one of the leaders in the movement to arrange that the money contributed in the United States should go primarily to former residents of America. In "Ha-Modia'la-Ḥadashim" (New York) for 1901 he published, under the title "Le-Ḳorot Gole Russiya be-Ameriḳa," a sketch of the history of Russo-Jewish emigration to America. His "His tory of the First Russo-American Jewish Congregation" appeared in No. 9 of the "Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc.," 1901.