SHAME KHALATNIKOV

SHAME KHALATNIKOV (b. 1876)

            He was born in Ruzhin, Kiev district, Ukraine.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a small synagogue study hall.  At age thirteen he had to go to work to help his family.  Early in the day he would read books in Hebrew and Yiddish, and he wrote poetry and stories in both languages.  At age nineteen he turned to secular subjects, became an external student, and in 1903 set out to pursue his studies in Switzerland, but he got stuck in Chortkov (Chortkiv), eastern Galicia, where he founded one of the first Hebrew-taught-in-Hebrew schools in Galicia.  Fortuitously, he met Leyzer Rokeach, the editor of the weekly Der veker (The alarm) in Buczacz, and in it he published several poems and a story.  He also published a Hebrew story in Rokeach’s monthly Hayarden (The garden).  From that point, he published stories and articles in: Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper) and Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish laborer) in Lemberg; Der tog (The day) in Cracow; Der id (The Jew); Snunit (Swallow), edited by G. Shofman; and Haolam (The world); among others.  In 1910 he published the Hebrew-language monthly Tsafririm (Zephyrs)—only one issue appeared.  In 1911 the publishing house of Hateḥiya (Revival) in Warsaw brought out a collection of his stories and images in Hebrew under the title Pesiya rishona (First step).  He was interned during WWI in Stanislavov as a Russian citizen.  He later lived in the provincial town of Bili (Biel?) in Switzerland.  No further information has been forthcoming about him.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2.

Borekh Tshubinski