Avram Steuerman-Rodion

Avram Steuerman-Rodion
Born(1872-11-30)November 30, 1872
Iași
DiedSeptember 19, 1918(1918-09-19) (aged 45)
Iași
Pen nameA. de la Iași, As., Aster, De la Iași, Leander, Rodion, A. Trestianu, Tristis
Occupationpoet, journalist, translator, physician, political activist
NationalityRomanian
Periodca. 1890-1918
Genreessay, lyric poetry, memoir, quatrain, short story, sonnet
Literary movementContemporanul

Avram Steuerman-Rodion, born Adolf Steuerman or Steuermann and often referred to as just Rodion (November 30, 1872 – September 19, 1918), was a Romanian poet, anthologist, physician and socialist journalist. A member of Romania's Jewish community, he was a lifelong militant for Jewish emancipation and assimilation, noted for poems which attack the prevailing antisemitism of his day. For a while, he was active as a propagandist of Hovevei Zion ideas among local Jews.

During the early stages World War I, Rodion was a columnist at Seara daily, with articles which criticized Romania's prospects of joining the Entente Powers. Steuerman is himself described as a Germanophile, but, upon Romania's entry into the war in 1916, earned distinction on the local front. He committed suicide upon demobilization, following episodes of clinical depression.

Married into the family of Jewish intellectuals Moses and Elias Schwartzfeld, Steuerman-Rodion was thus related to poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane, who was his literary pupil. Steuerman himself is often described as an obscure contributor to Romanian literature, but survives in cultural memory for having given a poetic voice to the ideals of Jewish integration.