YISROEL-MEYER
VOHLMAN (ISRAEL MEIR WOHLMAN) (1821-February 1913)
He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia,
to a father who worked as an itinerant elementary school teacher, who enjoyed
the pleasures of simple labor, and who gave up teaching to be a water
carrier. He studied in religious primary
school and with his father. At age
seventeen he became a student at R. Yoysef Kaidenover’s yeshiva. Thereafter, he turned to the Jewish
Enlightenment, studied Russian and German, gave sermons in study chambers, and
withstood persecution from pious Jews who accused him of heresy. To honor the ascension to the throne of
Russian Tsar Aleksandr II, Vohlman wrote the sermon “Language of Justice” which
earned him a thank-you letter with a monetary gift from the governor of Vilna,
whom he would make use of for his Enlightenment goals among Minsk Jewry. Several of his sermons appeared in book form
as a small religious text entitled Divre
habrit (Words of the covenant) which included eighteen sermons on
circumcision (Vilna, 1897), 32 pp. Until
the beginning of 1865 he studied in Minsk, where he earned his living by
teaching Hebrew and German in wealthy homes; later (1866-1872), he turned his
attention to teaching in Warsaw, Loyvitsh (Lovich), and other towns in
Poland. Later still he returned to
Minsk, and lived there until his death in a nursing home in want and
loneliness. In Minsk he was active as
well among the “Lovers of Zion” and took part in the conference on settling the
land of Israel (Minsk, 1883).
Vohlman was the author of a great
number of treatises in Hebrew-language periodicals: Hamagid (The preacher), Haivri
(The Jew), Hakol (The voice), Hamelits (The advocate), Hatsfira (The siren), and his own
journal Hakokhavim (The stars) in
Minsk (1865), which published the most prominent Hebrew writers of that
era. Due to a fire that destroyed all the
copies of the journal together with subscription money, he lost all his
possessions, and he could no longer make ends meet. He continued nonetheless with his own writing. A man who had always lived among the poor
popular masses and thus understood their lives, he was one of the few adherents
of the Jewish Enlightenment at this time who, despite his extraordinary
prominence among Hebrew writers as an eminent practitioner of precision in
Hebrew—he was the author of the text Yesode
hamishkolet (Bases of weight) (Warsaw, 1867), 42 pp., in which he explained
the foundations of the Hebrew language—he also took to writing in Yiddish. Mikhl Rabinovitsh, the custodian of Vohlman’s
unpublished writings (which contain, among other things, chapters of his autobiography
and memoirs, written, according to a suggestion from Shoyel Ginzburg, for the
Russian anthologies Perezhitoe (One’s
past), found among them a volume entitled Shpas-tekhines
(Humorous Yiddish prayers for women) in verse form (written around 1843) which
promises to be extremely interesting both from its contents and from its
language. One could also argue that
certain of these prayers which were published anonymously, he may have written
together with Naftali Hamaskil Leetan.
In the 1870s and perhaps earlier, he published in Vilna a series of
short religious works in Yiddish, such as: Ḥasde avot
(Benevolence of the Father), published with the text of Pirke avot (Ethics of the Fathers) (Vilna, 1885/1886), 132 pp.; and
Makore minhagim (The source of
customs), on various customary practices among Jews; among others. In 1873 he translated from Hebrew into
Yiddish Yiftokhs tokhter (Yiftaḥ’s daughter): “A novel
set in the time of the Judges. Written
in the Hebrew by Mr. Levinzohn, / translated into Judeo-German by Mium / G. P.
O. of Y. M. V., in Russian under the title—fuller name ‘Y. M. Volman’” (Vilna,
1873), 56 pp. That year there appeared
in print his comedy Di vayberishe
kniplekh (The women’s pinches) (Vilna, 1873), 44 pp., which had great
success with the reading public and soon came out in a second edition. With the Vilna publication of his comedy, the
author listed once more his name as Mium and with the Russian “Y. M. Volman”
under the title. Regardless, a debate
later arose as to whether the comedy was really the work of Vohlman or Ludvig
Levinzon under whose name and in another edition the comedy was subsequently
published in Warsaw. The Warsaw reprint
was entitled Der kheyrem derebeynu
gershon oder di vayberishe kniplekh (The ban of R. Gershon or the women’s
pinches), “a theatrical piece in five acts written in verse / The story takes
place in a small town in Lesser Poland” (Warsaw: Yoysef Levinzohn, 1882), 48
pp. The two editions differ in many
details. Whether Levinzon reworked
Vohlman’s comedy or himself wrote a similar theatrical work has not been
determined, but it is plausible that he may have been the author of the first
Vilna edition of “Kniplekh.” As for the
fact that the distinctive Polish Yiddish of the comedy differs, one should not
forget that in the years, 1866-1872, Vohlman lived in Warsaw and other cities
in Poland, and he was certainly capable of using Polish Yiddish.
Vohlman was also the author of Sipure yeme kedem (Stories from bygone
days), “four different poems, four good brothers / 1) a poem of a vineyard, 2)
a poem of Egypt, 3) a poem of truth, 4) a poem of peace / translated by Yish״m Volman” (Vilna, 1877), 32 pp.; of these poems
with historical content: “Shire betulat bat yehuda” (Poem of the maiden
daughter of Yehuda), “Kol berama nishma” (A voice on high is heard), and a poem
concerning children’s education entitled “Ḥinukh lenaar” (Education for a youngster).
Also, Sh. Viner notes in his list of Vohlman’s collection Lider far gute brider (Poems for good
brothers): (a) the Jewish priest; (b) live with courage; (c) the patriot,
published by Mium—Vohlman (Vilna: Hilel Dvorzets, 1879), 32 pp. Using the pseudonym “Yisroel Bemoharim,” he
also published the pamphlets: Rebe
mortkhe mit dem pabst (Rebbe Mortkhe with the Pope) (Vilna, 1887), 32 pp.;
and Der maharam shif (Our teacher Rabbi
Shiff) (Warsaw, 1893), 32 pp. He may,
perhaps, have been the same person who wrote Toldot r׳
yehuda hanasi rabenu kodesh
(History of Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi, our blessed rabbi) (Vilna, 1872); and Tsen vunderlikhe zakhn (Ten wonderful
things) (Vilna, 1874). In addition, he
translated several Musar works from Hebrew into Judeo-German, among them: Sea solet (A seah of fine flour) by R. Rafael of Nortsi, with a preface by
Vohlman (Vilna, 1964), 108 pp., as well as (under the pen name “R. Shoyel of
Minsk”)[1] Or olam im darkhe olam (The light of the world with the ways of the
world) (Vilna, 1865), 130 pp. The Minsker almanakh (Almanac of Minsk) for
1913 published Vohlman’s story “R. mandel” (Rabbi Mandel). He died in Minsk.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol.1 (with
a bibliography); Reyzen, in Di yidishe
velt (Vilna) (September 1928); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidish teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol.
1 (with a bibliography); Sh. L. Tsitron, Anashim
veseforim (People and books) (Vilna, 1921); Dr. Y. Shatski, Arkhiv tsu der geshikhte fun yidishn teater
un drame (Archive for the history of Yiddish theater and drama), vol. 1
(New York, 1930), pp. 177-79; Shatski, Geshikhte
fun yidn in varshe (History of the Jews in Warsaw), vol. 3 (Vilna,
1954), p. 215; Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn fun
mayn lebn (Episodes in my life), vol. 3 (Vilna, 1935), pp. 228-29; E. R.
Malachi, in Hadoar (New York)
(November 17, 1944); A. Almi, in Keneder
odler (Montreal) (April 29, 1945); Kh. Liberman, in Kiryat sefer (Jerusalem) (Sivan [= May-June] 1958).
Khayim Leyb Fuks
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 226.]
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