MOYSHE VOROBEYTSHIK-RAVIV (MOÏ VER)

MOYSHE VOROBEYTSHIK-RAVIV (MOÏ VER) (1904-1995)

            He was born in the town of Lebedev, Vilna district.  He studied in religious elementary school, later in the Vilna Tarbut high school where he joined the editorial collective of the student magazine Pirḥe tsiyon (Flowers of Zion).  He demonstrated talents in drawing and later studied in a number of art schools.  He took part in the art show entitled “Fun shulhoyf biz glezer-gas” (From the synagogue courtyard to glazier’s street) in Vilna (1927), and he brought out afterward a photo album entitled Di yidishe gas in vilne (The Jewish street in Vilna), sixty-five images, with a preface by Zalmen Shneur, published by Uriel Fisli (Zurich-Leipzig, 1929), 64 pp. in Yiddish and German and 14 pp. in Hebrew and German.  He went on to study in Germany and France where he worked as a photo journalist for the Parisian illustrated press, and in 1930 he brought out a second volume of photographs, Paris, with a foreword by the painter Fernand Léger.  He published a report on Manual Chapman’s book, William Schwartz: A Study in Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) 4.4-5 (1932) in Vilna, as well as travel impressions of Spain in Vilner tog (Vilna day) (February-April 1933).  In 1934 he settled in Israel, and there in 1935 he brought out a photo album of laboring Israeli youth, Ḥevraya, hanoar haoved (Comrades, working youth) (Tel Aviv, 64 pp.).  More recently he published the first ten leaves of his major photo album Polin (Poland) (Tel Aviv, 1945/1946).

Sources: M. Shalit, in Vilna anthology, edited by Y. Yeshurin (New York, 1935), p. 369; Z. Shik, in 1000 yor vilne (1,000 years of Vilna) (Vilna, 1939), p. 458; M. Bahelfer, “A briv in redaktsye” (A letter to the editors), Afn shvel (New York) (September 1947)

Leyzer Ran