HIRSH VOLOFSKI

HIRSH VOLOFSKI (September 14, 1878-November 8, 1949)

            He was born in a village near Shidlevtse (Szydłowiec), Poland.  At age two he moved with his parents to Shidlovtse.  He received a rigorous religious education.  He was orphaned at age fifteen on his father’s side and then left for Warsaw where he worked at first in a wine business, later becoming a wine merchant.  He lived for several years in Lodz, and from there he moved to England.  In 1900 he proceeded on to Montreal, Canada, where he served as vice-president of the American Federation of Polish Jews, as well as one of the leaders of the Canadian Jewish Congress and of the local Zionist Organization.  He founded in 1907 (and also edited from the start) the daily newspaper Keneder odler (Canadian eagle), in which he published articles and feature pieces and ran the daily column “Ofene diburim” (Open words).  Because of WWI, the importation of religious texts from Vilna and Warsaw was discontinued, and Volofski in 1920 kept on reprinting an edition of the Vilna Talmud and distributing them through various Jewish communities.  In 1921 he made a trip to Europe and Israel, and he wrote up his impressions from this trip in his book: Eyrope un erets-yisroel nokh dem velt-krig, fun kenede biz erets-yisroel iber mizrekh un mayrev-eyrope un tsurik, rayze bashraybung (Europe and the land of Israel after WWI, from Canada to the land of Israel across Eastern and Western Europe and back, a travel description) (Montreal, 1922), 280 pp.  He also wrote the following books: Fun eybikn kval, gedanken un batrakhtungen fun dem hayntikn lebn un shtrebn in likht fun unzer alter un eybig nayer toyre, ayngeteylt loyṭ di parshes fun der vokh (From an eternal source, thoughts and deliberations on contemporary life and aspirations in light of our old and forever new Torah, divided by [Torah] portions of the week) (Montreal, 1930), 189 pp.; Mayn lebns-rayze, zikhroynes fun iber a halbn yorhundert yidish lebn in der alter un nayer heym (My life’s voyage, memoirs from over half a century of Jewish life in the old and new home) (Montreal, 1946), 265 pp., which also appeared in English translation [Journey of My Life: A Book of Memories (Montreal, 1945)].  Volofski was also the founder of the English-language Jewish weekly newspaper Canadian Jewish Chronicle in 1912.  He used such pen names as: Yankl Shmid and Ben-Shifre.  He died in Montreal.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (December 2, 1946; November 10-14, 1949; December 5, 1949); Y. Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike (Jewish newspapers in America) (New York, 1946), p. 265; N. Shemen, in Der amerikaner (New York) (January 3, 1947); Y. Rabinovitsh and M. Ginzburg, in Keneder odler (November 10, 1949); Y. Medresh, in Keneder odler (November 10, 1949); B. G. Zak, in Keneder odler (November 13, 1949); Kh. M. Kayzerman, in Keneder odler (November 11, 1949); Zak, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (March 23, 1956); Jubilee volumes for Keneder odler (1927, 1937, 1957); information from his son, Max Volofski in Montreal, Canada.