YANKEV-HERSH ZILBERSHTEYN

YANKEV-HERSH ZILBERSHTEYN (1889-April 19, 1977)

            He was born in Koriv (Kurów), Lublin district, Poland, into a family of a poor scribe.  He studied in religious primary school, synagogue study hall, and secular subjects via self-study.  As a youth he became a laborer.  He took part in the revolutionary movement in Warsaw, Nikolaev, and Kherson.  In 1913 he moved to Canada and settled in Winnipeg.  He became a railroad worker and took part in the local anarchist movement.  He was cofounder and chairman of the Winnipeg division of the Jewish Labor Committee.  He was also cofounder of the Workmen’s Circle school and chairman of its educational committee.  He wrote articles for Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York, in which he published (1957-1958) a series of memoirs under the title “Ikh bin gevorn a frayhaytlekher sotsyalist” (I became a free socialist).  In Yizker-bukh-koriv (Remembrance volume for Kurów) (Tel Aviv, 1955), pp. 821-92, he published a piece entitled “Hunderter epizodn, kuryozn un pasirungen” (Hundreds of episodes of curiosities and events), which both had great significance for Jewish history in Kurów and had its own general literary value.  He died in Winnipeg, Canada.

Source: M. Grosman, ed., Yizker-bukh-koriv (Remembrance volume for Kurów) (Tel Aviv, 1955), p. 7.