AVROM HEYNOKH

AVROM HEYNOKH (b. January 1, 1910)

            He was born in Kovel (Kovle), Volhynia, Ukraine.  He graduated from a Hebrew middle school and later studied in a pedagogical institute in Kuibyshev, Soviet Russia.  In 1947 he left Soviet Russia for Poland, settled in Lower Silesia, and was secretary of the local Jewish cultural society.  He began writing stories from Jewish peasant life in Volhynia in 1937.  He later published in the periodical Nidershlezye (Lower Silesia) in Wrocław (1947-1949), Mosty (Bridges) in Polish (Lodz), as well as in the Hebrew serials Shevatim (Tribes), Bereishit (In the beginning), Moshe (Moses), Omer (Speech), and Zemanim (Times)—in Israel.  Among his books: Tsvishn berglekh (Amid the little mountains) (Warsaw, 1939), 110 pp.; Af voliner felder (On Volhynian fields) (Wrocław, 1949), 53 pp.  He introduced types and images of Jewish peasants and toilers in Volhynia and their struggles amid Polish and Ukrainian surroundings.  His dramatic monologue, Der letster veg fun r. ayzikl mdombrove (The last road of R. Ayzikl Mdombrove), with its Holocaust motif, was staged by Sigmund Turkow.  He also published under the pen name: A. Hinokh.  He was last living in the state of Israel.

Sources: Y. Turkov, in Nidershlezye (Wrocław) (1949); R. Oyerbakh, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (May 2, 1953).