YUDE-LEYB YOSELOVITS

YUDE-LEYB YOSELOVITS

            He was born in Zhager (Žagarė), Lithuania.  He studied in religious primary school and yeshiva, and on his own he later studied foreign languages.  For a time he worked as a Hebrew teacher in Kovno.  In 1875 he settled in Riga and there he became a bookseller.  He was the author of Yiddish storybooks with a moral, among them: Hanoded, oder der fervogelter, roman in dray teylen (The wandered, or the man who showed up here and there, a novel in three parts) (Vilna, 1886), 48 pp.—“This is a true story and also a very beautiful story which took place in ancient times.  From this story you will, my beloved readers, derive great pleasure and then you will see how great is the wonder of God”; Dem foters tsavoe (The father’s testament) (Vilna, 1887), second edition (Vilna, 1894), 32 pp.; Der glik shidekh (The joyous match) (Vilna, 1888), 32 pp.; Eyn sho emes (One hour of truth) (Vilna, 1888), 32 pp.; Der shvartser feter (The black uncle) (Vilna,1890), 32 pp.; R. zundil khosid (Reb Zundl the Hassid) (Vilna, 1892), 32 pp.; Rabi ezriel mit dem ber, a tsveyte geshikhte fun khayim bal tshuve (Rabbi Ezriel and the bear, a second story about Khayim the penitent) (Vilna, 1896), 15 pp.  He also translated a number of morality tales from Hebrew in Yiddish, among them the Rambam’s Sefer tokhaḥat musar (Book of moral rebuke) (Vilna, 1876), 104 pp.  His Yiddish is written beneath the Hebrew original, with a “short preface” in which the author wrote, inter alia: “I have found it necessary to translate this text into Judeo-German, because the common people all should be able to read and know how to serve God properly, and I entreat you, my beloved brethren, that no one should be ashamed to read this book because it is written in Judeo-German.”  He wrote under the pan name: L’y m’riga (L[eyb] Y[oselovits] from Riga).

Khayim Leyb Fuks