SHIMEN TSHARNOBRODE

SHIMEN TSHARNOBRODE (1886-November 27, 1945)

            He was born in Shedlets (Siedlce), Poland.  From his youth he was an active Zionist.  In 1924 he moved to the United States, and he was active there in New York’s Shedlets Relief Association, in the Association of Polish Jews in America, and other organizations.  From WWI he turned his attention to collecting materials on Jewish communities in various countries.  A portion of this work—“Tsu der geshikhte fun yidn in shedlets” (On the history of Jews in Shedlets) and “Yidn in mezritsh” (Jews in Międzyrzecz)—appeared in Shedletser vokhnblat (Shedlets weekly newspaper) (1922-1938 and in the anthologies Poylishe yidn (Polish Jews) in New York.  His surviving works in manuscript—“Der onheyb fun der yidisher emigratsye keyn amerike” (The beginning of the Jewish emigration to America), “Poylishe yidn in amerike” (Polish Jews in America), and subsequent chapters of his writings on Jewry in Shedlets and Mezritsh—can be found in the YIVO archives in New York.  He died in New York.

Sources: Yedies fun yivo (New York) (September 1946); Y. Kaspi, in Sefer yizkor lekehilat shedlets (Memory volume for the community of Shedlets), ed. A. V. Yasni (Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires, 1956); information from M. Mandelman in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks