BRAFMAN, JACOB

(c. 1825-79)

   Russian scholar. He was born in Kletsk. He converted to Christianity, joining the Greek Orthodox Church, and served as a teacher of Hebrew at the government theological seminary in Minsk. Later he was censor of Hebrew and Yiddish books in Vilna and St Petersburg. His The Book of the Kahal is a translation into Russian of the minutes of the kehillah of Minsk; it describes how Jews acquire power over gentiles and it was used to justify anti-Jewish acts.