ELKONE ZILBERMAN

ELKONE ZILBERMAN (b. 1893)

            He was born in Mordy, Siedlce (Shedlets) district, Poland.  He moved with his parent in his youth to Shedlets and later to Warsaw.  He studied in religious elementary school, later graduating from a Russian high school.  For a time he worked as an employee in a business.  He contributed, 1922-1925, to the administration of the Polish Jewish daily newspaper Nasz Przeglad (Our overview) in Warsaw.  Over the years 1928-1931, he lived in Brazil where he engaged in business, later returning to Warsaw.  In the summer of 1939 he moved to France.  In the first days of September 1939, he was seen in Paris, and after that no further information about him has come to light.  He debuted in print with Polish translations into Yiddish in Nasz Przeglad, and later he switched to Yiddish and published stories, humorous sketches, literary critical essays (among them on Rainer Maria Rilke), and translations from Russian, Polish, and German in: Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), and Inzer hofenung (Our hope)—in Warsaw; Vortslen (Roots) in Lodz (1927); and other serials.  He was the owner of the Orient publishing house which brought out Yiddish translations of classical literature.  He authored the monograph: Lord bayron, zayn lebn un tetikeyt (Lord Byron, his life and activities), a free adaptation from Z. Aleksandrov (Warsaw, 1927), 151 pp.  He translated: from the Russian, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Zikhroynes fun toytn-hoyz (Memoirs from the house of the dead [original: Zapiski iz Myortvogo doma]), two volumes (Warsaw, 1923), second printing (1927); and from the Polish, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer’s Opgrunt (Abyss [original: Otchłań]) (Warsaw, 1926), 170 pp.

Sources: Sh. Vulman, in Arbeter-velt (Warsaw) (April 29, 1925); L. Finkelshteyn, in Bikher-velt (Warsaw) 3 (1928); Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; oral information from Shloyme Rozenberg in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks