LEYB VULMAN (WULMAN)

LEYB VULMAN (WULMAN) (September 26, 1887-April 1971)

            He was born in Berdichev.  He studied in religious elementary school.  In 1910 he graduated from high school in Pilev (Puławy), Lublin district, and later he studied medicine at Warsaw University.  He was a leader of the Jewish student union, 1910-1912, in Warsaw, and he organized a circle to fight against conversion to Christianity among Jewish academic youth.  At that time he was publishing correspondence pieces concerned with Jewish life in Warsaw in Russian-language newspapers in Kiev, as well as in the Berdichev daily newspaper Folksshtime (Voice of the people), 1912-1913, using the pen name Ben Shammai.  He was mobilized into the army during WWI.  In 1916 he graduated from the medical faculty of Warsaw University which was evacuated to Rostov during the war.  He was later manager of the medical division of the emigration office with the Red Cross in Kharkov and later director of the chief emigration office in Ukraine.  In 1921 he returned to Warsaw and became director of the sanatorium “Briut” (Health) in Otvosk (Otwock), later administering the medical section at the emigration division of the Jewish National Council.  He wrote for Haynt (Today) and Der emigrant (The emigrant) in Warsaw in which he published articles on the conditions and the needs of homeless Jews.  In 1922 he became the director of relief in the medical department of the Joint Distribution Committee in Warsaw; in 1923 he was made director of TOZ (Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia [Society for the protection of health]).  In 1927 he edited the book, 5 yor tetikeyt fun “toz” (1922-1926) (Five years of activities of TOZ, 1922-1926), 192 pp. (Yiddish and English).  He initiated the first Jewish doctors’ conference, held in Warsaw (June 24-25, 1928).  He published Shriftn fun 1tn land-doktoyrim-tsuzamenfor fun “toz” (Writings from the first national doctors’ conference of TOZ) (Warsaw, 1929), 206 pp.  In 1928 he edited the monthly Toz yedies (News from TOZ), “Bulletin of Jewish health protection in Poland” (Warsaw).  In 1930 he initiated the unification of ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades), TOZ, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), and Tsentos (Society for the Support of Children and Orphans) under the name “Construction and Self-Help” with the goal of jointly raising money on behalf of these institutions.  He was a member of the executive of YIVO and chairman of the Jewish Geographic Society.  In 1937 he published Af der vakh fun yidishn folksgezunt (On guard for the Jewish people’s health), with an accompanying word by Dr. Gershon Levin (Warsaw: TOZ), 115 pp. (published also in Polish).  In 1939 he moved to the United States.  He was the executive director of the American OZE and one of the initiators of OZE activities in the state of Israel.  He was as well a member of the presidium of the OZE world association and a member of the managing committee of YIVO.  He published articles in Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  He also wrote: “Der khurbn funem yidishn doktoyrim shtand in eyrope” (The Holocaust from the perspective of Jewish doctors in Europe), Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) 16.1 (1940), pp. 1-8; and “Yidishe kinder in eyrope nokh der milkhome” (Jewish children in Europe after the war), Yivo-bleter 33 (1949), pp. 84-94—both in New York.  He was living in New York until his death.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1928); Af di khurves fun milkhome un mehumes (On the ruins of war and turmoil), records of Yekopo (Yevreyskiy komitet pomoshchi zhertvam voyny—“Jewish Relief Committee for War Victims”) (Vilna, 1931); “Khronik” (Chronicle), in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (December 24, 1937); Zalmen Reyzen, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) (November-December 1938), p. 601; Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook) (Warsaw, 1939); “Unzere mitarbeter” (Our contributors), Yivo-bleter 16.1 and 33; Yivo-biblyografye (YIVO bibliography) (New York) 1 (1943) and 2 (1955); Sh. Izban, in Der amerikaner (New York) (November 20, 1959); The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 10 (New York); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).

Zaynvl Diamant