SHMUEL-YOYEL HURVITS

SHMUEL-YOYEL HURVITS (1880-December 19, 1957)

            He was born in a Jewish colony near Kherson, Ukraine, to parents who were farmers.  In 1894 they moved to Argentina and settled in Basavilbaso, Entre Rios Province.  A pioneer in Jewish colonization, he became with the passage of time one of the community and Zionist leaders in Argentinian Jewry.  He was one of the founders of the first Jewish agrarian cooperatives, an active culture and school builder, and a delegate on behalf of Argentine Jews to the twelfth Zionist Congress in 1921.  He was a member of the Argentinian delegation to the founding conference of the Jewish World Congress in Geneva in 1936 and until his death a member of the executive of the World Congress.  He published a great number of journalistic and current affairs articles as well as sociological treatises, mainly concerning Jewish colonization in Argentina.  He contributed to: Yidishe velt (Jewish world); Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper); Der idisher kolonist (The Jewish colonist); Der kolonist-kooperator (The colonist-cooperative); Argentiner yivo-shriftn (Argentinian writings from YIVO), “Di kooperativn in di yidishe kolonyes” (The cooperatives in the Jewish colonies) 1 (1941), pp. 59-116; Entre ryoser tribune (Entre Rios tribune), also editor, 1928-1930; and Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO), “Der krizis in der agrikultur un di yidishe yiko-kolonist” (The crisis in agriculture and the Jewish YIKO [Jewish Cultural Organization] colonist) in Vilna, 5 (1933), pp. 295-303, among others.  His book Kolonye lusienvil, 37 yor yidishe kolonizatsye (The colony of Lusienville, thirty-seven years of Jewish colonization) (Buenos Aires, 1932), 137 pp., includes materials on the rise and growth of the Jewish colonization in the province of Entre Rios over the course of thirty-seven years.  He also wrote the pamphlet: Der meshiekh-gedank bay yidn un der yidisher natsyonalizm (The idea of the Messiah among Jews and Jewish nationalism) (Basavilbaso, 1922), 26 pp.  He died in Buenos Aires.

Sources: P. Vyernik, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (November 21, 1927); B. Hoykhman, in Argentine (1938), pp. 515-16; Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort un teater in argentine (The published Yiddish word and theater in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), pp. 91, 183; Volf Bresler, Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Jewish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 921; P. Kats, Geklibene shriftn (Collected writings) (Buenos Aires, 1946), vol. 5; Y. L. G., in Der shpigl (Buenos Aires) (December 1957); Davke (New York) 32 (1957), p. 380; Kolonist-kooperator (Buenos Aires) (January-February 1958).

Khayim Leyb Fuks