Abraham Isaak

Abraham Isaak (October 4, 1856 – December 10, 1937) was a newspaper editor and Russian-American anarchist. He was raised in the Mennonite village of Rosenthal, part of the Chortitza Colony (in present-day Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire), but later settled in the United States.

Biography

Abraham Isaak was the second of 12 children born to Abraham Isaak (1832–1898) and Helena Wiebe (1835–1882).{{cite journal | url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-202919391/research-note-further-notes-on-abraham-isaak-mennonite | title=Research Note: Further Notes on Abraham Isaak, Mennonite Anarchist | date=January 2006 | first1=Steven Kent | journal=Mennonite Quarterly Review | volume=80 | issue=1 | last1=Smith | pages=83}}

Isaak was best known for his editing and publishing the American anarchist weeklies the Firebrand (1895–1897) and Free Society (1897–1904), Isaak was less a theorist than an activist.{{cite journal | title=Free Love and Free Speech on the Pacific Northwest Frontier: Proper Victorians vs. Portland's "Filthy Firebrand" | date=1981 | last=Schwantes | first=Carlos A. | journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly | volume=82 | issue=3 | jstor=20613790 | pages=271–293 | issn=0030-4727}} His acquaintances and friends included the Russian anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g20zgPvqFL0C&pg=PA225 | title=Living My Life | publisher=Courier Corporation | last=Goldman | first=Emma | year=1970 | page=225 | isbn=978-0-486-22543-2}}

Isaak came to regret his move to New York in 1904 where Free Society faced financial problems that forced its closure in November of that year. Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, which first appeared in 1906, was an attempt to fill the anarchists' subsequent literary void.{{cite book | editor-first=Peter | editor-last=Glassgold | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRigAAAAMAAJ | title=Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth | publisher=Counterpoint | year=2001 | isbn=978-1-58243-040-9}}

Political and ethical beliefs

Isaak only twice referred to his Mennonite past in the Firebrand and Free Society.See, respectively, the Firebrand, March 8, 1896 (microfilm reproduction) and Free Society, March 20, 1898, pg. 5. This extended quote is taken from the former:

{{quote|I was born and raised in a community of Mennonites in Russia. These people settled in South Russia after the land had been taken by conquest from the Turks and obtained the privilege from the Russian to manage their own affairs, and as their religion was against civil laws they lived for about 70 years without laws or officers. (I must mention here that these people had been persecuted, executed, burned at the stake, etc. in western Europe and were considered as the lawless, just as the anarchists are today.) There were no beggars, tramps nor thieves among them, and there was never a murder committed, although there were far over 100,000. There were no drunkards yet they had a distillery in their midst and everybody had access to the "brand." There was a so-called magistrate elected by the communities `to look after the conduct and welfare of the communities,' as the government expresses it, but in the eyes of the members he was nothing but a mediator between them and the government. These people were all prosperous and happy as long as commercialism did not effect {{sic}} these communities. They formerly had only produced for their own use as neither cereal nor cattle were saleable. But when wheat raising became profitable, accumulation began; then some invested their money in factories and the "rich and the poor" became distinct–government stepped in, and to-day {{sic}} there are beggars, thieves and drunkards among them, but I have not heard of a murder yet.}}

Although Isaak was an ex-Mennonite, he continued to espouse many traditional Anabaptist principles such as pacifism,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8z8mdUYp-6gC&pg=PA23 | title=Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America | publisher=AK Press | last=Avrich | first=Paul | year=2005 | page=23 | isbn=978-1-904859-27-7}} mutual aid and socio-economic equality that Anarchist theorists have promoted and that Isaak believed represented the best of his own Mennonite tradition.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W78NAAAAQAAJ | title=The Anabaptists | publisher=Routledge | last=Goertz | first=Hans-Jürgen | year=1996 | isbn=978-0-415-08238-9}}

Later life

Nothing suggests Isaak resumed newspaper work. In fact, he became involved in such establishment organizations as the Farm Bureau and other civic organizations. Maria Isaak died of pneumonia on April 17, 1934; Isaak, according to his death certificate, died of acute pancreatitis on December 10, 1937. Four years before his death Isaak wrote to his friend, Harry Kelly: "First, the railroads took our pears and plums and $70 to boot; the good Lord took our citrus fruit (by frost), and two weeks ago the Bank of Lincoln closed its doors, where we had our last savings...." He concluded: "Some 30 years ago Thorsten Veblen told me in Chicago that the machine would break capitalism sooner than the efforts of revolutionists, and it seems his prediction is coming true."Printed in Freedom, February 25, 1933, pg. 3.

References

External links

[https://historicalseditions.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/01/free-society-and-the-firebrand-digitized-1895-1904/ Digitized scans of Free Society and The Firebrand]

Category:1856 births

Category:1937 deaths

Category:American anarchists

Category:American anti-capitalists

Category:American pacifists

Category:American people of Russian descent

Category:People from Lincoln, California

Category:Anarchists from the Russian Empire

Category:Anti-capitalists from the Russian Empire

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Category:Pacifists from the Russian Empire

Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon