TSEMEKH-MOYSHE HALPERIN

TSEMEKH-MOYSHE HALPERIN (November 9, 1919-1988)

            He was born in Raseyn (Raseiniai), Lithuania, and he studied in a Hebrew public school, in a Tarbut high school, and in a yeshiva.  In 1936 he made aliya to Israel where he belonged to various Zionist groups and parties.  In 1941 he joined the Jewish Brigade.  In 1946 he came to Germany on assignment for the United Zionist Revisionist Party, organized the Revisionist movement in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen and throughout the entire British zone in Germany.  In 1949 he studied journalism and history at Munich University and received his doctorate.  He returned to Israel in 1951 and became a teacher in the municipal high school of Tiberias and from 1953 its director.

            He first published in 1939 an article in Haboker (This morning), and he later placed pieces in: Vidergeburt (Regeneration) and Yeshurin (Jerusalem) in Munich; Undzer front (Our front) and Vokhnblat (Weekly newspaper) in Bergen-Belsen; Undzer tsil (Our goal) in Linz, Austria; Beys yisroel (House of Israel) in Buenos Aires; and Afrikaner yidishe tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper) in Johannesburg.  In Hebrew he published in: Haboker, Haarets (The land), Hamashkif (The spectator), Ḥerut (Freedom), Yediot aḥaronot (Latest news), and Ḥayil haam (The people’s corps), organ of the Jewish Brigade, among others.  He served as editorial secretary of Niv hatotḥan (Words from the gunners), organ of the artillerymen in the Jewish Brigade at the front (1943), and editor of Had hasolela (Echo of the battery), organ of the Brigade in Belgium (1946).  While in Munich, he edited (1948-1950) the Revisionist weekly Undzer velt (Our world).  Among his books in Yiddish: Vegvayzer (Guide) (Munish, 1949), 104 pp.—ten treatises on Hebrew writers and Zionist personalities.  He contributed as well to Hayfe-yorbukh far literatur un kunst (Haifa yearbook for literature and art) and Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Tel Aviv.  Other books and pamphlets were all in Hebrew.  Among his pen names: Adyoli, Kahane, Maḥats, Meri, Nudi, Nets, Sambodi, Tsits, Roni, Raseyner, and others.  From 1942 he adopted the Hebrew family name Tsamriyon.

Sources: L. Shalit, in Undzer velt (Munich) (June 10, 1949); A. Abrahams, in Undzer velt (June 15, 1949); Y. Khrust, in Undzer velt (June 24, 1949); M. Tshemni, in Tsienistishe shtime (Munich) (September 23, 1949); Y. Frenkl, in Tsienistishe shtime (October 18, 1949); Frenkl, in Jüdische Wochenschrift (Buenos Aires) (September 25, 1949); Jewish Echo (Glasgow) (October 11, 1949); Jüdische Rundschau (Basel) (November 1949); Y. Tiger, in Di tsayt (London) (December 14, 1949).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 207.]