KHAYIM GELER

KHAYIM GELER (b. May 3, 1892)

            He was born in Sniatyn, eastern Galicia.  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshiva, and with the rabbis in Sniatyn and Brody.  He also had private tutors for secular subjects.  He graduated from a state high school in Romania and from a higher course of study at the commercial academy in Vienna.  He lived in Vienna until 1919, later in Czernowitz, and from there in 1938 he moved to Israel.  From high school days, he was an active leader in the Labor Zionist movement in Galicia, Austria, and Bukovina.  He chaired the “right Labor Zionist” party in Romania, and he served as its delegate to Zionist congresses.  He also took part in world congresses of his party in Vienna and Warsaw, and in the unification conference in Danzig and Bucharest.  He was also among the most active contributors to the party’s cultural institutions in Galicia and Bukovina and of the leaders in the struggle for Jewish national autonomy in Galicia.  He was cofounder, and for a time chairman, of the unions of Jewish writers and journalists in Czernowitz.  His journalistic work began in 1906 with Togblat (Daily newspaper) in Lemberg.  From then on, he contributed to the Yiddish press in Poland, Galicia, Austria, Romania, and the United States with current events articles and pieces on Yiddish theater and cultural issues, in: Tog (Day) in Cracow, Der yidisher arbeter (The Jewish laborer) in Lemberg, Der yud (The Jew) in Stanisławów, Folksfraynd (Friend of the people) in Sanok, Jüdische Morgenpost (Jewish morning mail) in Vienna, Haynt (Today) and Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw, Vilner tog (Vilna day), Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev, Arbeter tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) in Czernowitz, Tshernovitser bleter (Czernowitz leaves), and Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal), Togeblat (Daily newspaper), Yidishe vokhnblat (Jewish weekly newspaper), and Tog in New York.  Over the years 1925-1938, he was a special correspondent of New York’s Tog and of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (ITA) for Romania.  He coedited—with Sh. A. Sofer and Kh. Vayntroyb—Arbeter tsaytung, 1922-1929, and in 1925 he became the head editor.  He was also the editor of Der yidisher arbeter (October 1924 and February 1925).  From 1944 he edited (together with Dr. Vaynshteyn) Di shtime fun oyle (The voice of immigration to Israel), with the association of Bukovina Jews in Israel.  He also published under the pen names: Ḥ”g Hatsiyoni, Spektator, Ḥaim Ben-Tsvi, and Feyges, among others.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Itsik Shvarts, Draysik yor yidishe literatur in rumenye (Thirty years of Yiddish literature in Romania) (Iași, 1947), p. 24; M. Naygreshl, in Fun noentn over 1 (New York, 1955), p. 345.