MANDELSTAMM, LEON

(1819-89)

Russian writer, of Lithuanian origin, brother ofBenjamin Mandelstamm. He was born in Zagare. He studied at St Petersburg University and was the first Jew to enrol in a Russian university. In 1846 he was appointed to take charge of Jewish affairs in the ministry of education and to establish a network of governmental schools for Jews; he also supervised the Jewish heder and Talmud Torah schools, and prepared Jewish textbooks. His work obliged him to travel throughout the Pale of Settlement. Dismissed from his post in 1857, he lived in Germany, where he engaged in trade and contracting. He eventually returned to Russia and lived in St Petersburg.