SIMKHE-YOYSEF HEYBLUM

SIMKHE-YOYSEF HEYBLUM (b. November 24, 1906)

            He was born in Warsaw to Hassidic parents.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva, and until age eighteen he was absorbed in Hassidism.  In 1922 he left to become a pioneer in the land of Israel, where he was employed in construction, on roadways, and in orchards, and for a time he was the owner of a small restaurant in Tel Aviv.  In 1938-1940 he managed a theatrical revue “Kol dorot” (All generations), and in 1951 the theater “Zikit” (Chameleon).  He debuted in print with a story in Varshever bleter (Warsaw leaves) in Warsaw in 1927, and from that point in time he published stories, reportage pieces, and humorous sketches in: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), and Hayntike nayes (Today’s news)—all in Warsaw; Nayvelt (New world), Erets-yisroel shriftn (Writings from the land of Israel), Letste nayes (latest news), and other publications from Israel.  He also wrote in Hebrew for: Haarets (The land), Had yerushalaim (Echo of Jerusalem), Al hamishmar (On guard), and Omer (Speech)—all in Israel.  More recently he was writing a weekly piece for Haboker (This morning).  He published the following books: Ikh vil aheym! (I want to go home!), sketches and travel accounts (Warsaw, 1931), 220 pp.; Dzhike gas (Dzika street), about Warsaw during the Holocaust (Tel Aviv, 1944), 84 pp.; Gelekhter mit a tret, humoreskes (Smile with a tear, humorous sketches) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1982), 272 pp.; Eygene mentshn, humoreskes (Our own people, humorous sketches) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1982), 252 pp.  He was also the author of comedies, one-act plays, and poetry, such as: Yidishe gazlonim (Jewish thieves), staged in the theater “Sambatyon” (Warsaw, 1931); Sadye befoyln (Saadya in Poland); A milyon dolar (One million dollars); and Oylim veyordim (Immigrants to and emigrants from Israel), among others, produced at the theaters “Hametate” (The sweeper), “Kol hadorot,” “Zikit,” and “Li-la-lo,” just as was the case for the programs of Shimen Dzigan and Yisroel Schumacher.  He also contributed to the preparation for the Hebrew-language staging of Goldfaden’s Shulamis (Shulamit) in the state of Israel in 1957.  He excelled with his Arab novels which were among the very of this sort in Yiddish literature.  His humorous sketches were replete with idiomatic Yiddish, earlier Warsaw Yiddish and later that of Tel Aviv.

Sources: L. Finkelshteyn, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (June 5, 1932); Y. Perlov, in Vokhnshrift far literatur (Warsaw) (December 23, 1932); Selim, in Haynt (Warsaw) (September 8, 1932); D. B. Malkin, in Mishmar (Tel Aviv) (November 15, 1944); A. Sarfi, in Di bruk (Tel Aviv) 1 (December 1944); R. Oyerbakh, “Rozhinkes mit mandlen” (Raisins and almonds), Tsukunft (New York) (November 1957); M. Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), p. 474.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 218.]