ABE-YOYSEF ZUSMAN

ABE-YOYSEF ZUSMAN (August 10, 1877-November 24, 1951)

            He was born in Brod (Brody), eastern Galicia, studied in a religious primary school and a public school, and then had to go to work.  He left home at age fifteen and wandered to Austria, Germany, and Holland.  In 1893 he arrived in the United States where he became active as a socialist and a union leader.  In 1918 he organized the Jewish Socialist Agitation Bureau and traveled through the United States and Canada, giving speeches on socialism and trade unionism.  He began writing articles for Tsaytgayst (Spirit of the times), the weekly publication of the Forverts (Forward) in New York.  In 1910 he published a biweekly socialist newspaper, Der vinipeger kuryer (The Winnipeg courier), which lasted for eight months; in 1914 he started Di idishe arbayter tsaytung (The Jewish workers’ newspaper) in Montreal, which ceased publication during WWI.  From November 1914 he was editor of the workers’ section of Der idishe velt (The Jewish world) in Philadelphia.  He wrote feature pieces and sketches under such pen names as: “Abele zigt er,” A. Zusinke, A. Zman, and A. Svitman.  He also published in Forverts in New York.  He was the author of the booklet, Klangen un gezangen (Sounds and songs) (Philadelphia, 1944), 100 pp., poems of his own and translations of those by Ida Isaacs Menken (1835-1868).  He died in Philadelphia.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1; Gershon Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934), see index; M. Regensberg, in Forverts (New York) (November 29, 1951).