BEN-TSIEN YOFE (BENJAMIN JAFFE)

BEN-TSIEN YOFE (BENJAMIN JAFFE) (1896-July 26, 1954)

            The brother of Khyene and Kadish-Charles Yofe, he was born in Schuchyn (Ščučyn), Vilna district, Lithuania.  He moved to the United States in 1910.  There he graduated from a music conservatory.  From 1916 he worked as a cantor.  He was the author of liturgical compositions.  He translated into Yiddish hymns, prayers, and psalms, which he published in Morgn-zhurnal (morning journal), Der amerikaner (The American), and other serials in New York.  His books include: Sefer tehilim veshire tsiyon baḥaruzim (Volume of psalms and poems of Zion in rhyme), “a free poetic translation in verse in the manner of the book of Psalms, with the permission of well-known rabbis,” part 1 (New York, 1942), 87 pp., with a preface by Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, part 2 (New York, 1944), 86 pp., with a preface by Sh. Tiktin and poems by Tsvi-Hirsh Blumenfeld, and part 3 (New York, 1948), 96 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Khazones (Cantorial art), a jubilee publication of the cantors’ association (New York, 1937), p. 180; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, preface to the first part of Sefer tehilim veshire tsiyon baḥaruzim (Volume of psalms and poems of Zion in rhyme) (New York, 1942), p. 5; M. Kligsberg, in Yor-bukh (New York, 1944/1945); obituary notices in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (July 27, 1954) and Tsukunft (New York) (September 1954).

Khayim Leyb Fuks