YONE-ZEYDL TRUBNIK

YONE-ZEYDL TRUBNIK (1849-September 23, 1888)

            He was born in Litin, Podolia.  He received a stringent religious education, but later he became a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment and hence had to leave his hometown.  He settled in Zhitomir, where he worked as a Hebrew teacher and taught the yeshiva students Russian, but he esteemed the importance of Yiddish as a means of spreading education among the people, and he himself wrote in Yiddish.  He published popular science articles in Spektor’s Hoyz-fraynd (House friend), Sholem-Aleykhem’s Yudishe folksbiblyotek (Jewish people’s library), and elsewhere.  He was the author of one of the first modern textbooks for Yiddish, entitled Zhargon-lehrer, praktishes lehrbukh tsu laykht erlernen di zhargonishe shprakhe in eyn kurtse tsayt (Zhargon [Yiddish] teacher, a practical textbook to easily learn the zhargon language in a short period of time) (Warsaw, 1886), 100 pp., with a second, enlarged edition (Warsaw: Yankev Smertenko, 1888), 112 pp.  In addition to rules of orthography and exercises with Hebraisms, it included anecdotes, sayings, and a reader of natural science articles.  Trubnik also compiled Fremd verter-bukh, baynahe 4,000 fremde vorter, velkhe gefunen zikh in der russisher shprakhe (Foreign dictionary, renewed 4,000 foreign words which may be found in the Russian language), “translated into the zhargon language” (Zhitomir: Mortkhe Skamarovski, 1887), 83 pp.  He “early on” translated Grace Aguilar’s novel Emek haarazim (The vale of cedars), from A. Sh. Fridberg’s Hebrew translation, under the titled: Di ungliklikhe miryem, oder di blutige geshikhte fun der inkvizitsye, eyn historisher roman fun ispanye (The unhappy Miriam, or the bloody history of the Inquisition, a historical novel from Spain) (Vilna, 1888), part 1, 114 pp., part 2, 91 pp.  He also translated: Di shene yehudis, oder yehudes di tsveyte, eyn historisher shener roman (The beautiful Yehudit, or Yehudit the Second, a lovely historical novel [original: Yehudit hasheniya, sipur (Yehudit the Second, a story)]) by Leopold Sacher-Masoch (Berdichev, 1888), 90 pp.; Ester hamalke, eyn hekhst interesante roman in velkhe es shildert zikh dos lebn funem nayem dor (Queen Esther, an extremely interesting novel in which is described the life of a new generation) by Karl Emil Franzos (Berdichev, 1888), 168 pp.  He also adapted a work by Kalman Schulman as Eyne kurtse bashraybung iber eynige historishe erter fun erets yisroel un ihre zeltene deynkmeler (A short depiction of several historical sites in the land of Israel and its rare monuments) (Zhitomir, 1888), 44 pp.; translated Dr. Ludwig Philippson, Rabi yehe halevi, der yudisher minister, eyn historisher roman (Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, the Jewish minister, a historical novel) (Vilna, 1895); and compiled (with Yankev Fass) Rusish-yudish khrestomatye (Russia-Yiddish reader), which appeared posthumously (Berdichev, 1900), 99 pp.  He died in Zhitomir.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1, with a bibliography; Sh. Bostomski, in Di maye shul (Warsaw) 1 (1923); A. Litvak, Yidishe literatur (Yiddish literature), part 1 (Kiev, 1928); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Fun kheyder un shkoles biz tsisho (From religious and secular primary schools to Tsisho) (Mexico City, 1956), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks