LEYB GUDMAN

LEYB GUDMAN (b. December 2, 1906)

            He was born in Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Latvia.  He studied in “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school), graduating from a Hebrew high school in Dvinsk and the Hebrew teachers’ seminary in Riga.  In 1929 he moved to Johannesburg.  He was one of the founders of the “South African Jewish Cultural Federation” and of its organ, Dorem-afrike (South Africa).  In 1926 he debuted in print with articles in Unzer teatr (Our theater).  Over the years 1926-1929, he wrote for the daily newspapers, Frimorgn (Morning), Ashmodai, and Di volkh (The week)—all in Riga; later for Dorem-afrike; Heymish (Familiar) in Tel Aviv; and Tsukunft (Future) and Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 149-50.