LEYB HILER

LEYB HILER (November 19, 1901-November 8, 1958)

            He was born in Vladislavov, near Konin, Poland, into a rabbinic family.  He studied at religious primary school, synagogue study hall, and with private tutors.  He received rabbinical ordination in late 1917.  He studied in Germany, Belgium, and later in Cuba.  From 1918 he was active in Tseire-agudat-yisrael (Agudat Yisrael youth) in Poland and Germany.  In Belgium he was secretary of the Jewish Merchants’ Association.  In Havana, Cuba he was president of the aid committee for refugees, a member of the management committee of the Jewish community, and cofounder of the patrons for the “Jewish home.”  He began his journalistic work in 1918 with a treatise on religious education in the journal Ets ḥayim (Tree of life) in Warsaw.  He was later contributor to the sole monthly journal in Yiddish in Germany, Dos yudishe vort (The Yiddish word), published by the Agudat Yisrael (Agudes Yisroel) in Frankfurt (1920).  He was editor of the weekly Unzer shtim (Our voice [Nuestra voz]), organ of the Jewish community of Cuba (Havana, 1949-1951), and of Byuletin fun patronazh (Bulletin of patronage) (1950-1953).  He was co-editor (with Nakhmen Soloveytshik) of the publication Der gruntshteyn (The cornerstone) (Havana, 1951), 204 pp. in Yiddish, 40 pp. in Spanish, in which he published a work on Jewish life in Cuba.  At the end of 1956 he moved to the United States.  He died in New York.

Sources: Der gruntshteyn (Havana, 1951), p. 204; Y. Hokhshteyn, in Yedies (New York) 118 (October 22, 1951); obituary notices in Forverts (New York) and Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York), both (November 12, 1958).