Daniel Brick
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Taube Mirsky (1980–)
Daniel Brick | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 23, 1903 |
| Died | January 19, 1987 (aged 83) |
| Occupations | Journalist, writer, translator, editor |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Riwkin (1929–1970, her death) Taube Mirsky (1980–) |
Daniel Brick (23 March 1903 – 19 January 1987) was a Swedish journalist, editor, translator, public intellectual, and a leading voice in Jewish cultural life in 20th-century Sweden.[1]
Daniel Brick was born to Elias David Brick, a merchant, and Maria Klara Brick (née Burstein),[2] Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in Sweden via Finland.[3] He was the twelfth of thirteen siblings.[3] The family moved from Stockholm to Norrköping in 1905, returning to the capital around 1910.[3] Brick studied at Norra Latin and earned a bachelor's degree in literature history from Stockholm University in 1929.[3]
That same year, he married the photographer Anna Riwkin,[4] sister of his close collaborator and fellow translator Josef Riwkin.[3] Their home became a hub for modernist and radical intellectual circles in Stockholm.[1]
Brick became a central figure in Sweden’s Jewish cultural scene. He co-founded the magazine Judisk Krönika (lit. 'Jewish Chronicle') in 1932[5] and served as its editor-in-chief until 1979.[1] He was also general secretary of the Zionist Organization in Sweden from 1935 to 1948.[1] In 1952, a forest was planted in his honor in Israel.[1] In 1957, he established the Jewish Cultural Institute (Judiska Kulturinstitutet) in Stockholm, a space for interfaith dialogue and intellectual exchange.[1]
During the interwar years, Brick published several pamphlets confronting antisemitism, including Why Are the Jews Always Blamed? (1939, 1944) and Against Antisemitism: Swedish Authors Take a Stand (1943).[3] He contributed to the Nordisk familjebok and lectured frequently on Jewish and Zionist topics.[1] Known for his fierce engagement in public debate, he was described posthumously as “a fighter, unafraid to make enemies.”[1]
In 1980, ten years after the death of Anna Riwkin-Brick in 1970, he remarried Taube Mirsky.[3] He died on 19 January 1987.[6]