NOYEKH-SHLOYME GRIS

NOYEKH-SHLOYME GRIS (September 2, 1902-December 16, 1986)

            He was born in Kilikov, Galicia.  He graduated from a high school in Lemberg and in 1927 from the philosophy department in Cracow.  From that year he worked as a teacher in the Tarbut high school in Lida, Grodno, and Rovno, and 1934-1936 he was director of the Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) high school in Bialystok.  He spent 1947-1952 in Israel, subsequently in Paris where he was professor at a lycée and from 1963 in charge of the Hebrew-Yiddish section of Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.  He received his doctorate in humanities in 1964.  He contributed literary and scholarly articles to Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Yivo-bleter (Leaves from YIVO), Yidishe far ale (Yiddish for all), Voliner nayes (Volhynia news), Voliner lebn (Volhynia life), Unzer lebn (Our life) in Bialystok, Nayvelt (New world), Al hamishmar (On guard), Goldene keyt (Golden chain) in Israel; Arbeter-vort (Workers’ word), Naye prese (New press), Oyfsnay (Afresh), and Parizer tsaytshrift (Parisian periodical) in Paris; Tsukunft (Future), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Der veker (The alarm) in New York.  He also wrote in Polish and French, and translated from Hebrew into Yiddish.  Among his books: Kinder-martirologye, zamlung fun dokumentn (Children’s martyrology, a collection of documents) (Buenos Aires, 1947), 284 pp.; Tsvishn fraynd, finf yor in land vos hot bazigt der hitlerizm (Among friends, five years in the country that defeated Hitlerism) (Paris: Oyfsnay, 1953), 213 pp.; Fun finsternish tsu likht, shaye shpigl un zayn verk (From darkness to light, Yeshayahu Shpigl and his work) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel bukh, 1974), 89 pp.; Yidn in lebn un shafn fun vl. g. korolenko (Jews in the life and work of Vladimir G. Korolenko) (Paris, 1975). 79 pp.; Yidish-frantzeyzish verterbukh (Yiddish-French dictionary) (Paris, 1982), xxiv, 371 pp., with Sh. Kerner.  His translations include: M. Braslavski’s Zot haarets (That is the land) as Aza iz undzer land (That is our land) (Paris, 1947); and P. Hirshman’s Lebn lang un blaybn yung (Living long and remaining young) (Paris, 1975) from a German manuscript.  He died in Paris.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 182.