AVROM TIKTIN

AVROM TIKTIN (1866-1943)

            He was born in Berestovitsa (Brzeszcze), Poland.  He studied with itinerant teachers, with the rabbi of Lune (Lunna), and with Rabbi Yisroel Magid in Bialystok.  At age sixteen he translated from French: Jean Macé, Toledot pat leḥem (History of a morsel of bread [original: Histoire dʼune bouchée de pain]), with a preface by M. Dolitski (Warsaw, 1882), 127 pp.  In 1889 he published an original novel entitled Ḥalifot vetsava (Changes and war) (Warsaw, 1890).  He wrote feature pieces for Hamelits (The advocate) under the pen name “Ben ish yehudi.”  He was a correspondent for St. Petersburg liberal Russian newspapers, and he contributed to Russian-language newspapers in Bialystok.  He assumed a prominent position in Bialystok community life.  In 1905 he laid his credentials before the Bialystok Jewish community and underwent the experience of democratic elections.  He was an elector during the elections to the first, second, and fourth State Dumas (1906, 1907, 1912). He chaired the Bialystok Vaad Hakahal (Community Council) in 1929.  He also was chairman of the Jewish bloc in the Sejm election, as he was of the anti-Hitler committee.  He wrote articles for the Bialystok Yiddish newspapers: Dos naye lebn (The new life) and Unzer lebn (Our life).  He published: Di drite geule (The third redemption) (Bialystok, 1934), 64 pp.; and Demokratizm, marksizm, universalizm (Democratism, Marxism, universalism) (Bialystok, 1937), 86 pp.  With the rise of Nazism, he published the pamphlet Hitleryade (Hitlerism) and the book Vos yeder muz visn (What everyone must know) (Bialystok, 1937), 264 pp.  According to Ber Mark, he died in the first liquidation of the Bialystok ghetto in February 1943.  According to Refoel Rayzner, in the same year he was deported to Treblinka or Auschwitz and was murdered there.

Sources: Byalistoker almanakh (Bialystok almanac) (Bialystok, 1931); Byalistoker leksikon (Bialystok handbook) (Bialystok, 1935); Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (January 25, 1935); Unzer lebn (Bialystok) (September 24, 1937); B Klementinovski, in Byalistoker shtime (New York) (March-April 1948); A. Sh. Hershberg, Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok) (New York, 1949), see index; R. Rayzner, Der umkum fun byalistoker yidntum, 1939-1945 (The destruction of Judaism in Bialystok, 1939-1945) (Melbourne, 1949), pp. 48-49; Ber Mark, Der oyfshtand in byalistoker geto (The uprising in the Bialystok ghetto) (Warsaw, 1950), pp. 141, 198, 199; Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), p. 198; A. Zbor, in Byalistoker shtime (April 1954); Y. Kahan, Unter di sovetishe himlen (Under Soviet skies) (Tel Aviv, 1961), p. 38; Bet eked sefarim.

Yankev Kahan