AVROM ZEMBO

AVROM ZEMBO (February 5, 1915-1971)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland, into a rabbinical family.  He was the nephew of the Gaon of Prague, Rabbi Menakhem Zembo.  He studied in religious elementary school, in the yeshiva of the Ger Rebbe, and in the Metivta Yeshiva in Warsaw, where he received ordination into the rabbinate.  He was an active leader in “Tseire agudat yisrael” (Agudat Yisrael youth) in Warsaw.  He participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, after which he was deported to German death camps.  In April 1945 he was liberated and until 1951 lived in the displaced persons camp in Feldafing, Germany—he then moved to the United States.  He began writing for the youth publication Der gorten (The garden) in Zamość in 1937.  After the war he worked for the Agudat Yisrael newspaper Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in Feldafing (1945), which he later edited together with Yoysef Fridenzon.  He also contributed to: Di idishe vokh (The Jewish week) in London, and to Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) and Dos idishe vort in New York.  In Hebrew he wrote for: Nerot shabat (Sabbath candles), Shaarim (Gates), Kol yisrael (Voice of Israel), Deglanu (Our banner), and Hakerem (The vineyard), among others.  In the work Mosadot hatora beeropa (Torah institutions in Europe) (New York, 1956), he published two pieces: “Shtiblakh bevarsha” (Small Hassidic prayer houses in Warsaw) (pp. 355-61); and “Metivta bevarsha” (Metivta in Warsaw) (pp. 363-80).  He died in New York.

Sources: Y. E., in Yidishe tsaytung (Landsberg) (February 13, 1948); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (December 8, 1957).