LEYB-KH. YOFE (LEIB JAFFE)

LEYB-KH. YOFE (LEIB JAFFE) (1884-1941)

            He hailed from Kovno, Lithuania.  He graduated from school in engineering and also studied philology.  In his youth he was active in the Bund.  He was one of the first Yiddishist leaders involved in secular Jewish schools in Tsarist Russia.  Between the two world wars, he was close to the Folkists, and he was active in ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) in Lithuania, in the central artisans’ association in Kovno, and in Jewish cultural institutions.  He worked as a teacher of physics and chemistry in the Jewish artisans’ school and in a series of high schools in Kovno.  He published articles on school affairs and on the Yiddish language in Der fraynd (The friend) in Warsaw, Folksblat (People’s newspaper) in Kovno, and elsewhere.  He contributed as well to the collections: Arbet (Work) (Kovno, 1924); Tsum oyfkum durkh arbet (Rise through labor) (Kovno, 1935); and in all of the publications of ORT in Lithuania.  He was a regular contributor to the biweekly periodicals: Der idisher hantverker in lite (The Jewish artisan in Lithuania) (Kovno, 1919-1929) and Der yidisher hantverker (The Jewish artisan) (Kovno, 1938-February 1940), in which he published his piece, “Materyal-kentenish far shnayders un shnayderins” (Material knowledge for male and female tailors), a special, systematic course (in eleven installments) which formed a portion of his longer work on trade materials with specific trade terminology in Yiddish—this work was included in the collection: Litvish-yidisher lernbukh far hantverker (Lithuanian Yiddish textbook for artisans) (Kovno, 1940).  In book form: Di yudishe shul, a zamlung fun shriftlikhe ibungen tsum erlernen di yudishe ortografye un tsum oyslegen gedanken (The Jewish school, a collection of exercises to learn Yiddish orthography and to spell out ideas) (Vilna, 1911), 98 pp.—subsequent editions appeared in 1912, 1913, and 1914, and it was used in the first Yiddish evening schools in Vilna and other places in the former Russia; Der shul-khaver, a leze-bukh farn tsveytn un dritn shul-yor (The school buddy, a textbook for the second and third school year) (Vilna, 1914), sixth edition (Kiev, 1919), 205 pp.  Until the Soviet regime seized Lithuania in 1940, he was active in Jewish cultural and community life, thereafter hiding in the shadows and not appearing in public until June 1941.  He died that year in the Kovno ghetto.

Sources: G. Prudermakher, in Shul pinkes (School records) (Vilna, 1924), p. 228; Y. Anilovitsh and M. Yofe, Shriftn far psikhologye un pedagogik (Writings on psychology and pedagogy) (Vilna: YIVO, 1933), p. 481; Y. Savidzh, in Lite (Lithuania), anthology (New York, 1951), vol. 1, pp. 1180, 1182; Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Fun kheyder un shkoles biz tsisho (From religious and secular primary schools to Tsisho) (Mexico City, 1956), p. 174; L. Zamet, in Yidishe shriftn (New York) (December 1960); Y. Gar, Viderklangen, oytobyografishe fartseykhenungen (Echoes, autobiographical jottings) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1961), pp. 105-14; information from Yudl Mark and Dr. Max Weinreich in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks