YISRAEL ZMORA

YISRAEL ZMORA (May 7, 1899-November 4, 1983)

            He was born in a village near Belz, Bessarabia.  He studied in religious primary school, in a yeshiva in Odessa, and later secular subject matter and foreign languages.  From his youth he was active in the Zionist movement.  He settled in Israel in 1925.  He visited Romania in 1926 on assignment for the Jewish National Fund.  In 1958 he visited the United States.  He debuted in print with poetry in Hebrew for the collection Peraḥim (Flowers) in Lugansk (Luhansk), later contributing articles and critical essays to: Haolam (The world) in Berlin-London, the monthly Yeshurun (Jerusalem) in Bucharest, Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev, and Tshernivitser bleter (Czernowitz leaves), among others.  From 1925 he was a contributor to: Haarets (The land), Ketuvim (Writings), Turim (Ranks), Moznaim (Scales [one of its editors]), Davar (Word), and Hatsofe (The spectator), among others—in Israel.  He founded the publishing house of “Miḥaverut lesifrut” (From friendship to literature) which published six times each year selected works from older and younger Hebrew literature.  He contributed as well to the anthologies Yaḥdav (Unity) in Tel Aviv.  In book form, he published several collections of critical essays on writers from various eras.  He published as well under the pen names: Y. Ze, Y. Haromar, and Y. Hamuzar.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopediya leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 3 (Tel Aviv, 1949), pp. 1362-63; Forverts and Tog-morgn-zhurnal (both: New York, April 16, 1958); M. Yafe, in Haboker (Tel Aviv) (Elul 20 [= September 5], 1958); Y. Kahan, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) (June 2, 1959); Y. Hurvits, in Haarets (Tel Aviv) (June 5, 1959); Y. Urland, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (July 17, 1959).