YOYSEF-ELYE TRIVUSH (TRIVOSH)

YOYSEF-ELYE TRIVUSH (TRIVOSH) (January 18, 1856-March 21, 1940)

            He was born in Vilna.  He studied in religious primary school and Russian with his father, a bookkeeper and business correspondent.  He prepared for the baccalaureate examination, but he became involved (1876) in illegal political activity, was arrested, and spent nine months in the Number 14 Antokol Prison near Vilna.  After being freed, he became a Russian teacher and also gave Hebrew lessons, and later worked as a teacher in the Hebrew high school in Vilna.  His first articles were published in Yeḥiel Bril’s Halevanon (Lebanon) and in Fin-Markon’s Hakarmel (Carmel).  Later, he published poems, stories, feature pieces, and articles in the Hebrew periodicals: Haasif (The harvest), Hazman (The times), Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah), Hamabit (The gaze), Hayom (Today), Luaḥ aḥiasaf, Hamelits (The advocate), Hatsfira (The siren), Hatekufa (The epoch), Haolam (The world), Gelim (Mantle), and Hadoar (The mail), among others—using such pseudonyms as Sh. Paltiel, Yoel Foist, Eḥad Midre Mate, Benuni, Dan Serguchov, and others.  Among the books he published: Dor tapukhot (Generation of perversity) (Warsaw, 1881), 68 pp.; Din veḥeshbon (Accounting) (Warsaw, 1894); Pesiyot ketanot (Little steps) (Warsaw, 1904), 189 pp.  He also translated into Hebrew works by Anatol France, Lev Tolstoy, A. Schnitzler, Professor H. Graetz, and Sh. Dubnov.  Together with a teacher at the Vilna Tarbut high school, M. Y. Nadel, he published a three-volume work Historiya kelalit (General history) (Vilna, 1923) and Historiya kelalit mekutseret levate sefer amamiyim (General abridged history for national schools), as well as an anthology of Hebrew poetry entitled Miginze sifrutenu (From the treasures of our literature).  With the assistance of the Tarbut teachers Dovid Notik and Nisn Levin, he published the Mikra meforash (Scripture explained) for the Torah, Prophets, Psalms, and Proverbs.  His work on Job remained in manuscript.  He began writing in Yiddish in 1906 for F. Margolin’s daily newspaper Di tsayt (The times) in Vilna, for which he was a regular contributor.  Later he published (using the name Sh. Virt) a considerable number of articles and features for the Vilna Zionist dailies Di tsayt and Unzer fraynd (Our friend), among others.  He lived in St. Petersburg during WWI.  In 1921 he returned to Vilna, where he became a teacher of Jewish history and Hebrew literature in the Tarbut high school.  He died in Vilna.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1, with a bibliography; Sh. Ts. Zetser, in Tsukunft (New York) (February 1919); Y. D. Berkovitsh, in Forverts (New York) (February 22, 1931); Ben-Tsien Kats, in Historishe shriftn fun yivo (Historical writings from YIVO), vol. 3 (Vilna, 1939), pp. 256-82; E. Y. Goldshmidt, in Idishe shtime (Kovno) (March 23, 1940); M. Shalit, in Idishe shtime (March 29, 1940); A-R, in Hadoar (New York) (April 5, 1940); D. Perski, in Hadoar (May 4, 1945); A. Reznik, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) 42; “Necrology,” in American Jewish Yearbook (1940).