BOREKH HOYKHMAN

BOREKH HOYKHMAN (b. July 7, 1888)

            He was born in Britshan (Briceni), Bessarabia, into a family of Jewish farmers.  He studied in elementary school until age nine, thereafter in a Yiddish-Hebrew school and a Russian high school in Khotin (Khotyn).  He moved to Argentine in 1906 and settled in the colony of San Antonio where until 1915 he worked on the land.  He later completed a course in bookkeeping.  He was an active community leader and cultural figure, primarily in the Jewish colony in the province of Entre Rios.  He was cofounder of the Jewish cooperative agricultural movement, as well as in drama circles, choruses, and libraries.  For a time he was secretary of the Labor Zionist party in Calante, San Antonio.  He debuted in print with articles, sketches, and impressions from colony life in the weekly newspaper, Der kolonist (The colonist) (1916-1917), and from that point forward contributed stories, articles, correspondence pieces, and memoirs of life in the Jewish colonies to: Di gezelshaft (The community) in 1918, Di prese (The press), Kolonist-kooperator (Colonist-cooperative), Folks-shtime (Voice of the people), Der veg (The way), and other serials in Buenos Aires; the weekly newspaper Unzer lebn (Our life) in Concordia, Entre Rios in 1930-1931; Der idisher kemfer (The Jewish fighter) in New York; and in the Spanish-language socialist publication, El Socialista (The socialist) in 1933 in Buenos Aires.  He published chapters of “Mayne zikhroynes un materyaln fun di idishe kolonyes” (My memoirs and materials on the Jewish colonies) in: Di prese yoyvl bukh (Anniversary volume for Di prese) of 1938; the anthology Argentine (Argentina) of 1938; Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Yiddish literature in Argentina) of 1944; Yorbukh yidish (Yiddish annual) of 1944-1945; D”r yarkhe-bukh (Dr. Yarcho’s book) of 1953; and in the issues of Argentiner yivo-shriftn (Writings from the Argentinian YIVO)—all in Buenos Aires.  He published under such pen names as: Iser, Itsik Kon, B. H., Kooperator, and the like.  He was last living in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Buenos Aies, 1944), pp. 269-76; Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort un teater in argentine (The published Yiddish word and theater in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 183.