KHAYIM HURVITS

KHAYIM HURVITS (1895-February 21, 1969)

            He was born in Bialystok.  He studied in religious primary school and in a Russian public school as well as in a yeshiva.  In 1906, he and his family were among the pogrom victims in Bialystok.  He came to the United States in 1921 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he graduated from law school and practiced as a lawyer.  He began writing articles in 1913 in the weekly newspaper Byalistoker vort (Bialystok word) and in the Russian daily newspaper, Golos byelostoka (Voice of Bialystok).  He also contributed to: Byalistoker tageblat (Bialystok daily newspaper) in 1915; Byalistoker folks-blat (Bialystok people’s newspaper) in 1919; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Bialystok, and in Hebrew to Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw.  In America he placed writings in: Di yidishe velt (The Jewish world) in Cleveland; Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok), Hadoar (The mail), and Hatoran (The duty officer) in New York.  Later, until 1938, he was a regular writer for Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) and Der amerikaner (The American) in New York, for which he used the pseudonyms: Khb”e (Khayim Ben-Eliezer) and Kh. Lazarson.  From 1938 he served as editor of the newspaper Di yidishe velt in Cleveland—until it ceased publication in 1952.  He wrote for the newspaper on a variety of community and literary issues, and many of his articles were at times reprinted in: Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal, Idishe zhurnal (Jewish journal) in Toronto, and Idisher kuryer (Jewish courier) in Chicago.  From 1940 he placed work in English-language periodical publications, such as: New Palestine (later known as American Zionist), Congress Weekly, The National Jewish Post, Jewish Review and Observer, and in the general American newspaper Cleveland Plain Dealer (200 “feature articles over the course of the years 1943-1953”), Cleveland Press, and New York Star, among others.  He made two trips (the second one in 1953) to Europe and Israel, and he wrote up his impressions in a series of articles in English.  While living in Cleveland, he held a number of different governmental posts, from 1951 the position of assistant district attorney for Cleveland.  He took part in the social life of Cleveland’s Jewish and general community, as well as in the local Zionist movement.  He died in Cleveland.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok), vol. 1 (New York, 1949), see index.