AVROM TKATSH (ABRAHAM TKACH)

AVROM TKATSH (ABRAHAM TKACH) (May 23, 1895-October 1961)

            He was born in Yedinets (Edineţ), Khotin (Hotin) district, Bessarabia.  His father, a Russian teacher was a friend of Yude Shteynberg.  Tkatsh studied in religious elementary school and with a private tutor for secular subjects.  He moved with his parents in late 1909 to Argentina, lived for a time in a Jewish colony, and later moved to Buenos Aires where he graduated from middle school and went on to study medicine for three years in university.  For many years he worked as a Yiddish and Hebrew teacher.  He cofounded the Jewish teachers’ seminary where he ran a course of study in Yiddish and Yiddish literature.  For a time he was in charge of the Board of Education within the Jewish community and a member of the Jewish community council.  He began his writing activities with children’s stories and humorous sketches in Penemer un penemlekh (Appearances, big and small) in Buenos Aires (1923), of which he was editor at one time.  He later contributed to: Far groys un kleyn (For big and small [adults and children]), Unzer dertsiung (Our education), Argentiner lebn (Argentinian life), Argentiner magazin (Argentinian magazine), and Di naye tsayt (The new times), among others—all in Buenos Aires.  With Sh. Tsesler, he published the textbooks: Undzer hemshekh, khrestomatye far hekhere gradn onfang-shul un ershte klasn mitlshul (Our continuation, a reader for upper levels of elementary school and the first classes of middle school) (Buenos Aires, 1948), 370 pp., several editions appeared, the final one in 1958; Undzer hemshekh, farn tsveytn lernyor (Our continuation, for the second school year), with drawings by V. Vind (Buenos Aires, 1949), 113 pp.; Undzer hemshekh, farn dritn lernyor (Our continuation, for the third school year) (Buenos Aires, 1949), 167 pp.; Ilustrirter alef beys un arbetsbukh, undzer hemshekh far kinder-gortn un onheyber (Illustrated ABCs and workbook, our continuation for kindergarten and beginners) (Buenos Aires, 1955), 107 pp.; with B. Kobrinski and Tsvi Bronshteyn, Dos yidishe folk, yidishe geshikhte far di anfangs-shuln (The Jewish people, Jewish history for elementary schools), part 1 (Buenos Aires, 1955), 108 pp., second edition (1959); Kinderland, leyen bukh farn 1tn un 2tn lern-yor (Children’s world, textbook for first and second school year) (Buenos Aires, 1952), 103 pp.; Erets-yisroel geografye (Geography of the land of Israel) (Buenos Aires, 1958), 143 pp.  He compiled fourteen booklets for various occasions: Purim (Purim), Peysekh (Passover), Oyfshtand in di getos (Insurrection in the ghettos), Yom hatsmoes (Independence day), Leg-boymer (Lag baomer), Shvues (Shavuot), Di dray vokhn (The three weeks [between Tamuz 17 and Av 9]), Avrom Reyzen (Avrom Reyzen [three booklets]), and Sholem aleykhem (Sholem-Aleykhem), among others—each sixteen pages.  He wrote and illustrated himself a wall chart for home and school: Shtamboym fun folk yisroel (Pedigree of the Jewish people).  He was the editor of a pedagogical journal from the seminary Unzer dertsiung (beginning in 1955).  He died suddenly in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentine (The published Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 117; Rozhanski, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (May 20, 1955); Yorbukh tshi”d (Yearbook, 1953/1954) (Buenos Aires), pp. 153-54; V. Tshernovetski, in Argentiner magazin (Buenos Aires) (April 1955); obituary notice in Idishe tsaytung (October 5, 1961).

Khayim Leyb Fuks