LEON HOFMAN

LEON HOFMAN (June 22, 1900-October 27, 1940)

            He was born in Bender (Bendery), Bessarabia.  He studied in religious elementary school and senior high school.  In 1913 he moved to the United States, and there continued his studies in school and in Bet-Mishkan-Yisrael in Philadelphia.  In 1919 he settled in New York and became active in the Yiddish theater.  In 1917 he had become the local news writer for the Philadelphia division of New York-based Di varhayt (The truth), later an editorial contributor to Di idishe velt (The Jewish world) in Philadelphia.  He published (using the pen names A. Isfel, Fayershteyn, and others) humorous sketches, stories, and poetry in: Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Forverts (Forward), and Kundes (Prankster)—in New York.  For many years he was press director for Maurice Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theater in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1; Tog (New York) (October 28-30, 1940); Forverts (New York) (October 29-30, 1940); Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (October 29-30, 1940).

Khayim Leyb Fuks