ZALMEN TRAUB

ZALMEN TRAUB (b. January 23, 1896)

            He was born in Ponevezh (Panevezys), Lithuania.  In 1915 he graduated from the local Russian senior high school, later studying technology and economic science at a Moscow institute.  He was a cofounder of the Tseire-Tsiyon (Young Zionists) organization in Ponevezh.  He also a member of the Zionist central committee and the central committee to aid pogrom victims in Ukraine, as well as director of the Zionist Socialist Party in Lithuania, among other such positions.  Over the years 1918-1921, he lived in Kiev, and later until 1940 he was in Kovno, at which point he escaped and made his way to Israel.  He began journalistic activities in 1916 at the Moscow Zionist weekly newspaper Evreiskaya zhizn’ (Jewish life) in Russian; in 1917 he served as the Moscow correspondent for Rassvet (Dawn), which at the time was being published in Petrograd.  He began writing in Yiddish in 1918 for the Zionist weekly Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people) in Kiev (edited by Sh. Tshernovitsh), later for the daily newspaper Di velt (The world) in Kiev (1919).  He worked as an internal contributor for the dailies Idishe shtime (Jewish voice) and Dos vort (The word), and he wrote as well for: Erd un frayhayt (Land and freedom), Di velt, Unzer ruf (Our call), Der idisher kooperator (The Jewish cooperative)— he was editor of all of these at one time—and in Hebrew for Had lita (Echo of Lithuania)—all in Kovno.  He wrote articles and feature pieces.  He published correspondence pieces from the Zionist congresses.  He contributed as well in Frimorgn (Morning) in Riga.  Over the years 1927-1939, he was the substitute editor for the Kovno daily Idishe shtime.  He was last living in Haifa where he was the representative of the local division of Davar (Word).  He contributed as well to the collection Karmelit (Carmelite) (Haifa, 1961).

Sources: Y. Mark, in Zamlbukh lekoved dem tsveyhundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese, 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of the 250^th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936), ed. Dr. Y. Shatski (New York, 1937); A. Refaeli (Tsentsiper), Bemaavak legeula (In the struggle for redemption) (Tel Aviv, 1957), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks