HERSH-BER LISKER

HERSH-BER LISKER (1888-June 3, 1934)

            He was born in Kiev, Ukraine.  Until age fourteen he attended religious primary school, thereafter studying painting for three years in a government school, from which he was barred for his role in a revolutionary circle (1905).  He studied in a Vilna high school (1907-1908), and later he was a business employee in Kiev where, until the revolution of 1917, he was active among the Zionist socialists, later in the “Fareynikte” (United socialist party), the “Kultur-lige” (Culture league), and other organizations.  At the same time he was studying political economy at Kiev University.  In 1925 he made his way to Mexico, and there he became one of the pioneers of the Yiddish press.  He was the organizer and statistician of the first Yiddish newspaper in Mexico (1934).  He contributed to virtually all of the Jewish cultural institutions in Mexico.  He wrote articles on socio-economic and political matters for the daily newspaper Di naye tsayt (The new times) in Kiev (1917-1918), contributing as well to: Unzer veg (Our way) in Homel (1917), Der shtral (The beam [of light]) in Homel (1918); Unzer veg, Nayer veg (New way), and Frayer veg (Free way) in Warsaw; and other partisan periodicals in Yiddish and Russian.  He was co-editor of Meksikaner yidish lebn (Mexican Jewish life) (1927), and later a regular contributor to Di vokh (The week) (1928), Unzer vort (Our word) (1929), and Meksikaner idishe shtim (Mexican Jewish voice) (1932-1934).  He also published under such pen names as: H. Gonzales, A. Farb, A. Shtoltsman, A. Shleyfman, and F. Enrikevitsh.  He died in a gunpowder explosion in Mexico.  At the commemoration thirty days following his death (July 3, 1934), a special issue of Meksikaner idishe shtim was published with articles about him by Yankev Glants, M. Kh. Dubovitsh, Y. Landau, and M. Biderman.

Sources: A. Forsher, in Meksikaner shriftn (Mexican writings), vol. 6 (Mexico City, 1937), p. 90; M. Glikovski, in Der veg jubilee volume (1930-1940) (Mexico City, 1940).

Khayim Leyb Fuks