BOREKH HELER

BOREKH HELER (1882-April 24, 1945)

            He was born in Kemmern (Ķemeri), near Riga, Latvia, into a well-to-do family.  He studied at a religious elementary school and graduated from a Russian high school.  In 1908 he moved to Argentina and until 1918 worked as a teacher and director in Jewish schools in the colony of Mozesville.  He was later a bookkeeper in Buenos Aires.  At the beginning of the 1920s, he went to Poland and until 1927 worked at the Vilna Jewish Teachers’ Seminary.  At that time he published in: Di arbeter-tsaytung (The workers’ newspaper) and Shul un lebn (School and life)—in Warsaw—his first pedagogical writings.  Thereafter he returned to Argentina where he was one of the founders of Vaad haḥinukh (Educational council).  He contributed to Shul-shriftn (School writings) in Buenos Aires.  He was the author of the readers: Ershte bletlekh (First pages), illustrated ABCs, part 1 (Buenos Aires, 1930), 79 pp., with Y. Ratse (in four printings, the last in 1947, 96 pp.); part 2, textbook for the second year (Buenos Aires, 1931), 160 pp., with illustrations (in multiple editions).  He died in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928); Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort un teater in argentine (The published Yiddish word and theater in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 190; Volf Bresler, Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Jewish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 929; Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (April 26, 1945).