AVROM GELMAN

AVROM GELMAN (1894-1942)

            He was born in Mezritsh (Międzyrzecz), Poland.  He received a Jewish and a general education.  He graduated from a Russian high school and pursued a Hebrew teacher’s course.  He began writing with a piece in the collection Bliung (Blooming) (Mezritsh, 1913).  He contributed stories, poems, and translations from Russian and Hebrew for: Mezritsher vokhnblat (Mezritsh weekly newspaper), Shedletser vokhnblat (Shedlets [Siedlce] weekly newspaper), Grodner moment (Grodno moment), Podlasher lebn (Podlasie life), and Familyen fraynt (Family friend) in London; Yugnt-zhurnal (Youth magazine) in New York; Der idisher zhurnal (The Jewish journal) in Toronto, and the like.  In Hebrew, he published in: Hatsfira (The siren) and Baderekh (On the road) in Warsaw, among others.  In Mezritsh publications, he offered descriptions of the former way of life among the Jews of Mezritsh.  He was murdered by the Nazis during the liquidation of the Jews in Mezritsh.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1927); Y. Horn, Yizker bukh mezritsh (Memorial volume for Mezritsh) (Buenos Aires, 1952); M. Edelboym, Di yidn-shtot mezritsh (The Jewish city of Mezritsh) (Buenos Aires, 1957).