Pulner Isaih

Pulner Isaih (1900–1942) – ethnographer.

In 1923-1925 – student of the Institute of Hebrew History and Literature in Petrograd/Leningrad. In 1924-1925, he was also Secretary of the Managing Office of the Institute.

In 1929, he graduated from the Geographical Faculty of the Leningrad State University with the specialization in the Caucasus studies (at the Ethnographical Department); his supervisors were V. G. Bogoraz, E. G. Kagarov, L. Ya. Sternberg).

In 1924, he participated in the expedition studying Ashkenazi Jews – under the supervision of L. Ya. Sternberg and V. G. Bogoraz.

Later, he organized and participated in numerous expeditions to Georgia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and Jewish Autonomous District. In 1930, he headed an expedition to Belorussian Jews from the Central Museum of Ethnography (Moscow). In 1930, he worked out an exhibition ‘Judaism’ at the Anti-Religious Show of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. in the Winter Palace; in 1939, together with M. I. Shakhovich (from the Museum of the History of Religion of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.) and Artist G. A. Traugott, he made an exhibition ‘Jews in the Tsarist Russia and in the U.S.S.R.’ in the State Ethnographical Museum.

He was head of the Hebrew Department of the State Public Library (1931-1937), Researcher and Head of the Hebrew Department of the State Ethnographical Museum (1937-1942).

Compositions

From the Life of the Town of Gomel’ // Jewish Mestechko in the Revolution. Moscow – Leningrad, 1926. (in Rus.)
Issues of Organization of Jewish Ethnographical Expeditions and Hebrew Ethnographical Museums and Hebrew Departments in General Ethnographical Museums // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1931, No 3-4, pp. 156-163. (in Rus.)
Georgian Jews in the Russian-Jewish Media // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1931, No 3-4, pp. 163-170. (in Rus.)
Materials for the Bibliography of Central Asia (together with Ya. B. Dobrik) // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1935, No 6, pp. 146-165. (in Rus.)
Literature about Jews in Russian (together with О. G. Spector) // Inform. Newsletter of the Hebrew Group, State Public Library. 1935, No 4/5. (in Rus.)
Results and Tasks for Studying the Caucasian (Georgian, Mountainous) Jews // Sovetskaya etnografiya 1936, No 4-5, pp. 105-121. (in Rus.)
Materials for the Bibliography of the Caucasus. 1: Pre-Revolutionary Literature; 2. Post-Revolutionary Literature // Sovetskaya etnografiya. 1936, No 4-5, pp. 230-270. (in Rus.)
Mountainous Jews in the Russian-Jewish Media: Collection of Bibliographic Materials of the State Public Library. Leningrad, 1937. С. 81–141. (in Rus.)
Georgian Jews in the Russian-Jewish Media: Index og Literature. Collection of Bibliographic Materials of the State Public Library. Leningrad, 1937, № 3–4. С. 34–87. (in Rus.)
Jews in the Tsarist Russia and in the U.S.S.R.: Guidebook. (together with М. I. Shakhnovich). Leningrad, State Ethnographical Museum, 1939. (in Rus.)

About him

Pulner I. М. // Russian Hebrew Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1995, vol. 2, pp. 413-414. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.