KHAYIM (JOACHIM) ZILBERSHTEYN

KHAYIM (JOACHIM) ZILBERSHTEYN (September 29, 1845-ca. 1907)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland, to wealthy parents.  He completed rabbinical school in Zhitomir in 1865, and spent 1869-1873 studying law in St. Petersburg.  Thereafter he worked in agriculture on his own in Vishlits, Poland.  He published articles in the general Russian-language press, and he was a regular contributor to the Russian Jewish Voskhod (Sunrise) and the Polish Kurier Warszawski (Courier of Warsaw).  He translated Goethe’s Clavigo into Russian (Klavigo) and composed his own Russian poetry.  He devoted his time to philological research in Slavic languages and in Hebrew.  In Yiddish he published poems and stories in: Kol mevaser (Herald) and Varshoyer yudishe tsaytung (Warsaw Jewish newspaper) in 1867; in the anthology Der yudisher beker (The Jewish alarm) (Odessa, 1987), he published a poem entitled “Der shemesh” (The sun), which bore the idea of a Jewish mission and Ḥibat-Tsiyon (Love of Zion) tendencies; and in M. Spektor’s Dos viderkol (The echo) (Warsaw, 1893).  In book form: Der dorn, historishe alegorye (The thorn, a historical allegory) (Warsaw, 1887), 64 pp.; Hebreish-slavishe filologishe forshungen (Hebrew-Slavic philological research) (Warsaw, 1890), 80 pp.  He also wrote under such names as Joachim.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Dr. Y. Shatski, Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe (History of the Jews in Warsaw), vol. 3 (New York, 1953), p. 271.