BERNSTEIN, IGNATI ABRAMOVICH:

By: Herman Rosenthal

Russian railroad engineer; born in Kremenetz, government of Volhynia, 1846; killed July 5, 1900, on the steamship "Odessa," between Harbin and Chabarovsk. He was educated at the high school of his native town, and at the St. Petersburg Institute for Engineers, from which he graduated.

In the eighties, while yet a student, he was received by the czar as a delegate from many Jewish families who petitioned for a restoration of their right of settlement outside the pale, of which they had been unlawfully deprived. Bernstein pleaded their cause so earnestly that the czar granted their request.

After serving as assistant district engineer on various railroads, Bernstein was in 1896 appointed first engineer at Vladivostok, and in the following year was sent to Tzitzikar, where he was given the direction of the fifth district of the Eastern Chinese Railway. On July 2 he sailed for Chabarovsk. When the vessel was three days out it was attacked by Chinese Boxers, who killed thirteen of the passengers, Bernstein being one of the victims. A memorial service was held Aug. 19 in the Great Synagogue at St. Petersburg.

H. R.