ELIEZER
YERUSHALMI (September 3, 1903[1]-December 10, 1962)
He was born in Horodishtsh (Gorodishche),
Byelorussia. He studied in religious
elementary school and yeshivas. In 1915 he
graduated from middle school as an external student in Volkovisk (Wołkowysk). He
studied the humanities in Kharkov, Kovno, and Königsberg Universities, and he
received his doctoral degree. He was a
teacher of history and linguistics at various middle schools in Lithuania and
Poland. He was a member of the Jewish
community council in Shavel (Šiauliai),
of the central committee of the Labor Zionists in Lithuania, and a leader in Haḥaluts (The pioneer) and
ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) in Shavel. From 1941 he was confined in the Shavel
ghetto, where he worked as a director and teacher in the ghetto public school. He served as technical secretary of the “Jewish
Council” (Judenrat), 1942-1943. He put
into writing a great number of testimonies of Jews who escaped from smaller
sites. During the bombing of the ghetto
(in the night of July 19, 1944), he escaped to the partisans in the forest,
later serving for a time in the Red Army, later still working as a teacher in
the Jewish public school in Vilna under the Bolsheviks. From June to September 1945, he lived in
Lodz, where he was active in the Jewish historical commission; later, with Briḥa (organization to help
postwar survivors escape Europe for Palestine) he left for Italy to run the
culture and education department of the Center for the Organization of Refugees
in Italy. He was a delegate from the
Jewish writers and cultural leaders in Italy to the founding conference of the
World Jewish Culture Congress in New York.
From February 1949, he was living in Haifa where he worked as the director
of a government middle school. He began
writing in 1923 in German, later contributing to a Russian-language daily
newspaper, Sevodnia (Today), in
Riga. From 1927 he was writing in
Yiddish and Hebrew. He published
pedagogical and literary works, political articles, historical pieces, and
stories in: Idishe shtime (Jewish
voice), Folksblat (People’s
newspaper), Dos vort (The word), and Had lita (Echo of Lithuania), among
others—in Kovno; Pedagogishe bleter
(Pedagogical pages) in Shavel; Dos naye
lebn (The new life) in Lodz; Dos vort,
In veg (On the road), In gang (In progress)—also serving as editor
of these last two—and Baderekh (On
the road)—all in Rome; Tog (Day) in
New York; Davar (Word), Davar hashavua (Word of the week), Hatsofe (The spectator), Omer (Word), Hador (This generation), Haarets
(The land), Gilyonot (Tablets), Hapoel hatsair (The young worker), Karmelit (The Carmelit), Gesher (Bridge), Masa (Burden), Sefer hamoadim
(Book of appointed times), Zakhor
(Remember), Molad (Birth), Mavoot (Entryways), Reshumot (official gazette of the Israeli government), Haḥinukh (Education), Orim (Lights), and Ha-haḥinukh (Echo of education), among others—in the
state of Israel. In book form he
published: A kitser fun yidisher
geshikhte (A summary of Jewish history) (Rome, 1946), part 1, 68 pp.; Profesor shuster, drame in fir aktn mit a
prolog (Professor Shuster, a drama in four acts with a prologue) (Rome,
1947), 38 pp. (can be found in the YIVO archives in New York); Byalik, zayn lebn un shafn (Bialik, his
life and work) (Rome, 1947), 32 pp.; Ḥurban yahadut lite
(The Jewish Holocaust in Lithuania) (Tel Aviv, 1953), 24 pp., a separate
imprint from Reshumot, and a shorter
fragment of his work, Der khurbn fun
tsofn-litvishn yudntum (The Holocaust of northern Lithuanian Jewry), 450
pp., which received the first prize of the Jewish literary association in Rome;
Pesaḥ bevet-hayeladim
bevilna hasovetit (Passover at the children’s home in Soviet Vilna) (Tel
Aviv, 1959). His work, Pinkas shavli, yoman migeto litai, 1941-1944
(Shavel records, Lithuanian ghetto diary, 1941-1944) (Jerusalem, 1958), 420
pp., with a preface by Professor Ben-Zion Dinur, was originally written in
Yiddish (the Yiddish original remains in manuscript). His story “Maysele fun shavl” (A story from
Shavel), which was published in Tog,
was translated into English and Spanish.
A number of his stories about ghetto children appeared in German under
the title Das jüdische Märtyrerkind:
nach Tagebuchaufzeichnungen aus dem Ghetto von Schaulen 1941-44 (The
martyred Jewish children, according to the diary records from Shavel,
1941-1944) (Darmstadt, 1960), 63 pp.
Subsequent works in Hebrew include: Yalde
hashoa (Children of the Holocaust), stories (Haifa, 1961), 147 pp.; Miyaarot hatsafon ad ḥurshot
hakarmel (From the northern caves to the Carmel forests) (Tel Aviv, 1962),
307 pp.; Meḥezyonot
hageto, sipurim umaḥazot (Visions of the
ghetto, stories and plays) (Haifa, 1963), 258 pp.; Beohole sifrut (Shelters of literature) (Haifa, 1965/1966), 268 pp. Several of these won prizes. He also served as editor of Din veḥeshbon
shel hamaḥalaka letarbut (Report of the culture
department) (Rome, 1948), 47 pp. He also
prepared for publication important materials on the destruction of Lithuanian
Jewry, among them: “Togbukh fun ponar” (Diary from Ponar), “Protokoln vegn der
lage fun di lagern un zeyer farnikhtung in estland” (Protocols on the condition
of the camps and their destruction in Estonia), “Di shkhite in vilkomir” (The
massacre in Vilkomir [Ukmergė]), “Di
shkhite in zhager” (The massacre in Zhager [Žagarė]), “Protokoln vegn
umkum fun di yidn in krestingen, shkud, salant, korten, plotl, dorbyan,
rakishki, ponyevezh” (Protocols on
the murder of Jews in Krestingen, Shkud [Skuodas],
Salant [Salantai], Korten [Kartena], Plotl [Plotele, Plateliai],
Dorbyan [Dorbenai], Rakishki [Rokiskes], Ponevezh [Panevezys]). He also published under such pen names as: A.
D. Liu and D. Segulim. In the eighth
volume of the Haifa yearbook Karmelit
(Carmelit), he published fragments from his drama Bemetsada (At Massada). He
died in Haifa.
Sources:
Eynikeyt (Moscow) (September 18,
1944); Tsukunft (New York) (January
1947); B. Cohen, in In gang (Rome)
(February 15, 1949); B. Ts. Dinur, preface to Pinkas shavli (Shavel records) (Jerusalem, 1958), pp. 7-8; Yad
Vashem, Reshimot hapisumim (Lists of
publications) (Jerusalem, 1958/1959), p. 5; M. Lahav, in Al hamishmar (Tel Aviv) (May 27, 1959); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (May 15,
1960); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, in Unzer tsayt
(New York) (November 1960).
Khayim Leyb Fuks
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), cols. 307, 544.]
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