Romm
The
family name Romm relates to a
Jewish family of printers and publishers of
Hebrew books in
Vilnius. The family formerly lived in
Grodno, where the book-dealer
Baruch ben Joseph Romm established a printing-office in 1789. The Romm Hebrew printing-office was the first in
Lithuania, and its authorization by King
Stanislaus Augustus was considered an important event. In 1799 Baruch removed to Wilna, where he died on
April 29,
1803. The business was inherited by his son
Menahem Man Romm, who in 1835 began, in partnership with
Simchah Zimel of Grodno, the crowning effort of a Jewish printer's careerâ€"the publication of a new edition of the
Talmud. The first volumes of that edition bear the imprint "Wilna and Grodno"; the later volumes have that of Wilna only; but the work was really done in
Ozar, near Grodno.
Menahem Romm died
October 13,
1841, and was succeeded by his only son,
Joseph Reuben Romm, under whom the printing-house was formally established in Wilna in 1847, although the report of a conflagration (
Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1840, No. 20) proves that it had even previously been of considerable size and importance. He died on
February 28,
1858, and left three sons,
David,
Chayyim Jacob (d.
August 30,
1869), and
Menahem Gabriel. David, who was the head of the firm, died suddenly
March 9,
1860, while on his way from
St. Petersburg, where he had obtained a practical
monopoly of the Hebrew printing and publishing business in
Russia. After his death the monopoly was broken, and numerous printing establishments sprang up in various parts of the empire. In 1863 the present firm name, "Witwe und Brüder Romm", was adopted; and the house has maintained its position as the foremost Jewish publishing concern in Russia, if not in the world.
Deborah Romm, David's widow, took an active interest in the firm's affairs until her death on
December 3,
1903. Three of her sons resided in
New York.
The Russian Hebraist
Mordecai (Marcus) Plungian was corrector in Romm's printing-office from 1869 to 1873.
Other descendants:
*
Mikhail Romm*
Steinschneider,
Hebr. Bibl. ii. 58; iii. 22; iv. 50, 126, 153 (Benjacob's list);
*
Aḥarit Dabar, note at the end of the treatise
Niddah of the latest edition of the
Babylonian Talmud, Wilna, 1897
*
Rom,
Romme
