Reuven Fahn
Fahn in 1908
Born	Reuven Fahn (ראובן פאהן) (1878-02-21)21 February 1878 Starunia, Austrian Galicia
Died	1939 (aged 60–61) or 1944 (aged 65–66)
Nationality	Polish Jewish

Reuven Fahn (Hebrew: ראובן פאהן 1878 – 1939 or 1944) was a Polish Jewish writer who was active in the decades before the Holocaust.^[1][2]

Reuven Fahn was born on 21 February 1878 in the village of Starunia in southeastern Austrian Galicia.^[1][2][3] Fahn could read and write in Hebrew, German, Yiddish, Polish, and Ukrainian by the age of 15.^[2] In 1897, at age 19, Fahn married Rachel Keren and moved to his wife's hometown, the Polish city of Halicz.^[1][2][3] In Halicz, Fahn was influenced by the Karaite Jewish community and their unique culture, which Fahn often wrote about in his literary works.^[1][2][3]

After Russia conquered eastern Galicia at the start of World War I in 1914, Fahn and many other Galician Jews fled to Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary.^[1][2][3] Fahn enjoyed the libraries in Vienna and worked as a librarian during his time there.^[2][3] He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army on 1 December 1914.^[2][3] His military service ended on 2 November 1918, with Austria-Hungary's existence ending soon afterwards.^[2][3] Due to his house and property in Halicz being destroyed due to World War I, Fahn moved to Stanisławów (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk).^[1][2][3] Afterwards, Fahn continued his work, but as a Polish citizen.^[2]

During a 1924 trip to Mandatory Palestine, Fahn created a Galician Zionist colony there.^[1][2][3] Fahn himself thought about moving to Palestine the next year, but decided not to since he feared that Palestine would soon have an economic crisis.^[1][2][3] The decision by Fahn and many other Galician Zionists to stay in Poland ended up being deadly for them due to the Holocaust destroying most of Poland's Jewish population by 1945.^[1][2][3] In 1930, Fahn maintained a correspondence with Hayim Nahman Bialik.^[2]

Fahn and his first wife had two daughters.^[3] His wife died when he was 25 years old.^[3] Fahn's eldest daughter Hana was later murdered in the Holocaust while her two daughters survived.^[3] In 1905, Fahn remarried to a woman from the city of Bolechow, with whom he had a son and a daughter.^[3] Yafa, Fahn's daughter from his second marriage, died at age nine while Fahn and his family were living in Vienna.^[3] Yosef, the sickly son from Fahn's second marriage, eventually had a son of his own but he and his entire family were murdered during the Holocaust.^[3]

Fahn's exact year and date of death are not known; 1939, 1940, and 1944 were all proposed for this.^[2] One report states that he was arrested and killed by the Soviets for Zionist activities a short time before World War II began.^[3][4] Another, possibly more reliable report states that he was murdered by the Nazis and their local Ukrainian allies in Stanisławów at the age of 66 in 1944.^[1][2]

• פאהן, ראובן (1896). בית ישראל: שיר־לאומי [House of Israel: A national poem]. (self-pub.)
• (הלוי), ראובן פאהן (1897). בזמן הזה: שיר [At This Time: A poem]. (self-pub.)
• תקופת ההשכלה בוינה: ציור תולדתי-תרבותי של נושאיה בחיים ובספרות בלוית התהוותה ודברי ימיה [The Enlightenment Period in Vienna: A historical-cultural picture of its subjects in life and literature]. M. Heckel. 1909.
• יוסלי טגלשר: ספור־אגדה לבני הנעורים [Yosli Tegelsher: A fairy tale for teenagers]. Snunit. 1922.
• מחיי הקראים: ציורים וטפוסים [From the Life of the Karaites: Depictions and Types] (in Hebrew). Hertz. 1924.
• געשיכטע פון דער יודישער נאציאנאל-אויטאנאמיע: אינ'ם פעריאד פון דער מערב-אוקראינישער רעפובליק [History of Jewish National Autonomy: The period of the Western Ukrainian Republic] (in Yiddish). Koltar. 1933.
• מבחר כתבים [Selected Writings] (in Hebrew). Israel Writers Association, Masada Publishing. 1969.

• Govrin, Nurit. The Reuven Fahn Collection, Tel Aviv University, 2014