Life
He was educated for the rabbinate, but, being attracted by Haskalah and modern learning, he entered upon a business career which lasted about five years. This proving unsuccessful, he went to Lemberg, where he studied bookkeeping at a technical institute, and also acquired a knowledge of German, French and Italian. After serving two years in the Austrian army he attempted to establish himself in Lemberg as a teacher; but persecution due to his liberal views made his position untenable, and he went to Romania, at that time a very favorable field for active and enterprising Galician Jews. He secured a good position in a commercial establishment in Galaţi, which enabled him to devote his evenings to his favorite studies.
In 1859 Rubin returned to Galicia and became principal of a school for Jewish boys in Bolechow. He went to Russia in 1863, where he was engaged as a private tutor in a wealthy Jewish family of Ostrog, Volhynia, with which he went to Vienna in 1865. There he met Peter Smolenskin, who was then in despair owing to the difficulty of continuing the publication of Ha-Shaḥar. Rubin promised him to write a complete work for that publication every year; and he kept his promise even after his personal relations with Smolenskin had become somewhat strained.
The years 1870 and 1871 were spent by Rubin as a private tutor in Naples, Italy, and from 1873 to 1878 he lived in the same capacity in the household of Jacob Poliakov in Taganrog, Russia. He then returned to Vienna, whence in 1895 he removed to Kraków.
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