Public lifeאברהם קאופמן

Abraham Kaufman

Abraham Kaufman was a Russian-born physician and Zionist leader in Harbin, China, who helped protect Jews seeking refuge in East Asia during World War II.

1885 to 1971Leading the Harbin Jewish communityAiding Jewish refugees in East AsiaImprisonment in the Soviet Gulag

Born: 22 November 1885, Mglin
Died: 25 March 1971, Tel Aviv
Occupation: pediatrician

Abraham Kaufman was born in 1885 in Mglin

Abraham Kaufman was born in 1885 in Mglin, a small Jewish village near Chernigov, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was Yosef Kaufman, and he was a great-grandson of Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad movement.

He finished secondary school in Perm in 1903, where he became interested in Zionism. From 1904 he studied medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland and returned to Russia in 1908 or 1909. While working in Perm, he lectured on Zionism and oversaw the Hovevei Zion group headed by his father.

In 1912 he moved to Harbin, China, and became a central figure in its Jewish community. He headed the Jewish hospital and the community, edited a Russian-language Jewish weekly from 1921 to 1943, and in 1937 led the new Far Eastern Jewish Council. With the support of Japanese officers, he urged Jews to see Manchukuo as a safe haven, and in 1939 he made an official visit to Tokyo.

Because of his ties with Japanese authorities, Soviet authorities seized him after the war. He was held in a Gulag labor camp from 1945 to 1956 and then moved to Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

In 1961 he immigrated to Israel with his son Theodore. He worked as a pediatrician for the Histadrut and died in Tel Aviv in 1971.