AVROM ZONSHAYN

AVROM ZONSHAYN (b. 1902)

            He was born in Shedlets (Siedlce), Poland, in a poor working family.  He studied in religious primary school, later graduating from a state school.  From his youth he was a laborer.  In 1927 he moved to Argentina, and for a time he worked as a barber in Buenos Aires.  He began publishing in Rabbi Shvartsman’s newspaper, Unzer veg (Our way), in Shedlets (1924), and later contributed poetry and stories to Y. M. Vaysenberg’s (Weissenberg’s) Inzer hofenung (Our hope) in Warsaw (1925-1926).  In Argentina he placed pieces in: Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper), Di prese (The press), Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated literary leaves), and other serials in Buenos Aires.  He received first prize in the Ozer Bumazhni competition for a story—published in Di prese.  He was last living in Munro, near Buenos Aires.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), p 212; information from Rabbi M. Shvartsman in Winnipeg; Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos Aires) (January-February 1958).