Markon Isaac Yulievich (1875-1949)

Markon Isaac (Isaak) Yulievich (Itzhak Dov Ber) (1875, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Province - 1949, London) - historian, literary scholar, public figure.

Isaac Markon received a traditional Jewish religious education. In 1901 he graduated from the Oriental Department and the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University. In the early 1900s, he continued his studies at the University of Berlin and the rabbinical seminary. Upon returning to Russia, he served as a librarian in the Hebraic Studies Department of the Imperial Public Library (St. Petersburg). In 1907-1909, he published the Jewish scientific journal Ha-Kedem in St. Petersburg. One of the founders in 1908 of D. Ginzburg's Courses in Oriental Studies, member of the pedagogical council; he lectured on the history of Jewish literature and the history of the Karaites, and taught a course on “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.” In 1908, together with D. Ginzburg, he published a collection in honor of Professor A. Ya. Garkavi and participated in the preparation of the “Jewish Encyclopedia.” From 1911, he was a member of the Academic Council of the Ministry of Public Education. He was secretary of the Semitic section of the Historical Society at St. Petersburg University, a member of the Russian Archaeological Society, the committee of the Society for Craft and Agricultural Labor Among Jews in Russia (ORT), the library commission of the Society for the Dissemination of Education Among Jews in Russia (OPE), deputy chairman of the Society of Lovers of the Ancient Hebrew Language, and one of the founders of the charitable student canteen “Maachol Kosher.” For many years, he was the warden of the St. Petersburg Choral Synagogue. From 1917, he was a member of the executive committee of the Petrograd Jewish community and one of the founders of the Netzach Israel party. In 1918, he became a member of the commission for convening a congress of representatives of the Jewish communities of Russia in Moscow. From 1920 to 1922, he taught at Petrograd University, then worked as a professor of oriental studies at Minsk University. In 1926, he emigrated to Latvia, then to Germany, where he taught a course in ancient Jewish history at the A. Hildes-Heimer rabbinical school. From 1929 to 1933, he was chief librarian of the Jewish community of Hamburg. At the end of 1938, he was expelled by the Nazis to the Netherlands. In 1940, he moved to Great Britain and worked at Montefiore College (Ramsgate). The author of many scientific works on ancient Jewish history, the history of the Karaites, articles on medieval Jewish poetry, etc.