SHIMEN HEYLPERN

SHIMEN HEYLPERN (1873-March 27, 1953)

            He was born in Merlik, Vilna district, where his father Yankev-Yisroel was rabbi.  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshiva, and with his father.  He received rabbinical ordination in Slavuta, worked for a time as a small businessman and later (until 1928) as a religious judge in Komines, a suburb of Vilna, and then he moved Israel where, from 1929 until the end of his life, he served as a judge, initially in Haifa and later in Jerusalem.  He was the author of the religious texts: Mate shimon (The staff of Shimen) (Vilna, 1923); and Meora shel tora (Light of the Torah) (Jerusalem, 1946/1947).  He edited the Torah journals: Torat yerushalaim (The Torah of Jerusalem), 1933-1936; and Tel talpiyot (Citadel), 1939-1946.  He translated into Yiddish, with his own marginal notation, Sefer hamidot (Book of attributes) by the Dubner magid (preacher of Dubno) (Vilna, 1924), 96 pp.  He died in Jerusalem.  He left behind in manuscript a Yiddish translation of old Musar (etiquette) works.

Sources: Bet eked sefarim (Library); Y. D. Mandelboym, Pinkes zamoshtsh (Records of Zamość) (Buenos Aires, 1957), pp. 256-57.