AVROM-YITSKHOK TRIVAKS (TRIWAKS)

AVROM-YITSKHOK TRIVAKS (TRIWAKS) (October 5, 1893-June 3, 1952)

            He was born in Mezritsh (Międzyrzecz), Poland.  At age nine, he moved with his parents to Israel, studied in yeshivas in Jerusalem, and then turned to self-study.  In 1908 he began to write articles for the Hebrew-language magazine Haḥerut (Freedom) in Jerusalem, and he became the Israeli correspondent for Unzer lebn (Our life) in Warsaw.  In 1911 he returned to Russia, lived in Rovno, Volhynia, and later contributed to various Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers and journals; he published his impressions of the Middle East and treatises on Israel.  He served as news editor, 1916-1917, for Haynt (Today) and later for Dos yudishe folk (The Jewish people) in Warsaw.  He also placed articles in: Di idishe vokh (The Jewish week) and Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw; Forverts (Forward) and Di tsayt (The times) in New York; and elsewhere.  In 1916 he published Ershte daytsh-yudish verterbukh, tsuzamengeshtelt loyt di nayeste makoyres un der nayer daytsher ortografye (First German-Yiddish dictionary, compiled according to the latest sources un the new German orthography) (Warsaw)—only one volume appeared.  He also participated in the compilation, Di ershte algemeyne un yudishe hand-entsiklopedye (The first general and Jewish hand encyclopedia) (Warsaw: Handbikher, 1917), 3 volumes, 352 pp.  He edited the illustrated periodical Alt-nayland (Old-new land) in Warsaw (eight issues over 1919-1920; sixteen issues over 1924-1925).  In the first five issues, he ran a questionnaire among Jewish writers on the language issue in Israel.  Over the years 1919-1925, he administered the publishing house “Alt-nayland” and published over twenty books, mainly in Hebrew.  In early 1926 he settled in Tel Aviv as the correspondent for Haynt.  He was also a book publisher and also turned his attention to the building of houses.  From 1948 he was the manager of Haentsiklopediya haivrit (The Hebrew encyclopedia), and on its behalf he visited (in 1952) North America and Canada, and there (in Montreal) he died.  His books include: Unzere pyonern in erets-yisroel (Our pioneers in the land of Israel) (Warsaw, 1916), 31 pp.; Handbukh fun erets-yisroel (Handbook for the land of Israel) (Warsaw, 1918), 108 pp., including a map; Erets-yisroel als land far yudisher kolonizatsye (The land of Israel as a country for Jewish colonization) (Warsaw, 1919), 24 pp.  He also published an illustrated album about the land of Israel in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English.  In Haifa, he edited the periodical Hashaar (The gate)—five issues appeared.  In 1938, together with Eliezer Shteynman, he published Sefer mea shana, anshe mofet veḥalutsim rishonim beerets yisrael bemeshekh mea shana umaala (Centennial volume, exemplary citizens and the first pioneers in the land of Israel over the course of 100 years and more) (Tel Aviv, 504 pp.).  Trivaks also was concerned with collecting and adapting Jewish folklore, and he published “Di yudishe zhargonen” (The Jewish vernaculars), in the collection Bay undz yudn (Among us Jews) (Warsaw, 1923), on the language of thieves, musicians, and wagon-drivers.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopediya leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 3 (Tel Aviv, 1949), pp. 1527-28; Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Jerusalem, 1941), cols. 245-48; Yoysef Horn, Mezritsh, zamlbukh in heylikn ondenk fun di umgekumene yidn in undzer geboyrn-shtot in poyln, tsum 10tn yortsayt (Mezritsh, collection in sacred memory of the murdered Jews in the city of our birth, on the tenth anniversary of their death) (Buenos Aires, 1952), p. 438; Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (The annual of newspapers) (Tel Aviv, 1947/1948), p. 222; M. Gintsburg, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (June 16, 1952).