YERAKHMIL HONIG

YERAKHMIL HONIG (1905-January 1977)

            He was born in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.  He lived in Lodz for a time.  Over the years 1924-1931, he was in Warsaw where he worked as a bank employee.  He spent 1931-1948 in England.  At that time, he visited Asia and Australia.  He moved to the United States in 1948 and settled in California where he became a rabbi in a small community in Los Angeles and gave lectures on psychology.  From 1953 he was living in São Paolo, Brazil; from 1956 he was back in London, England.  He began writing stories for Haynt (Today) in Warsaw (1924), later moving to current events pieces and literary essays.  He contributed to: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Haynt, and Naye folkstsaytung (New people’s newspaper)—all in Warsaw; Tomashover vokhblat (Tomaszów weekly newspaper); Lodzer folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper); Di post (The mail) and Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice) in London; Forverts (Forward) in New York (where, among other things, he wrote about his visit to meet Gandhi), and in the publications of the Lodz Jewish writers group.  During the Spanish Civil War, he served as correspondent for Warsaw’s Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) and other Yiddish newspapers in England, France, and Argentina.  He published, 1950-1953, a column in English for Di idishe shtime in Los Angeles.  He was the author of an English-language play, “Take, My Son,” staged by Maurice Schwartz in English and in Yiddish (“Nem, mayn zun”) with considerable theatrical success.  He served as co-editor, 1954-1955, of Der nayer moment (The new moment) in São Paolo, Brazil, and he also published in Der shpigl (The mirror) in Buenos Aires.  He also wrote under the pseudonym of Camille Honik, among others.  He visited Poland in 1957.

Sources: H. Lang, in Forverts (New York) (January 7, 1954); Der shpigl (Buenos Aires) (March 1954); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), pp. 225, 258; Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (April 4, 1957).

Khayim Leyb Fuks