SHAYE
LIPOVSKI (1874-August 1942)
He was born in Mohilev (Mogilev),
Byelorussia. In his youth he moved with
his parents to a village near Warsaw. He
attended religious primary school, later turning his attention to
self-study. He served in the Tsarist
army, became ill with tuberculosis, went to treat it at a foreign sanitarium, and
at the same time continued his studies and received his doctoral degree in
economic science from the University of Berne in Switzerland. From late 1913 he was living in Warsaw, and
he was active in the Bund, in the society to combat illiteracy, and later in
Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization).
In 1916 he began contributing work to the Bundist Lebens-fragen (Life issues) in Warsaw. In the anthology Karl marks (Karl Marx) (Warsaw, 1918), he published two pieces
entitled “Karl marks als ekonomist” (Karl Marx as economist) and “Di
geshikhte-filosofye fun karl marks” (The philosophy of history of Karl
Marx). He also placed work in the
collections of Unzer shtime (Our
voice) (Warsaw, August-November 1918) and in the yearbooks Arbeter-luekh (Workers’ calendar) (Warsaw, 1920-1926). Lipovski was the main statistician in
carrying out the Joint Distribution Committee’s questionnaire about Jewish
industry in Poland in 1921—the work resulting from the questionnaire was
published in three volumes: Yidishe
industryele unternemungen in poyln (Jewish industrial undertakings in
Poland) (Warsaw, 1922-1924). He also was
a regular contributor to: Virtshaft un
lebn (Economy and life) (1920-1931) and Bleter
far yidisher demografye, statistik un ekonomye (Jewish demography,
statistics, and economics) (1923-1925)—both in Berlin; Di kooperative bavegung (The cooperative movement) (1928-1939), Folks-hilf (People’s aid) (1931-1939),
and Dos virtshaftlekhe lebn (The
economic life) (1934-1935)—all in Warsaw; and Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) (1934-1939) and Di yidishe ekonomye (The Jewish economy) (1937-1939)—both in Vilna;
among others. In the Warsaw Ghetto he
carried out various studies for the Joint concerning Jewish life in the ghetto,
among them the refugees who wandered from villages to Warsaw during the German
occupation. He was also among the
leadership of the Jewish underground cultural club known by the acronym “YIKOR”
in the ghetto. At the end of July 1942,
he was taken to Treblinka and murdered there.
As Dr. E. Ringelblum wrote, Dr. Lipovski “left behind him in the ghetto
an entire series of scholarly writings in the field of the Jewish economy in
Poland.” Unfortunately, these writings
were not found. He also wrote under such
pen names as: A. Lindeman and A Zokn.
Sources:
Yivo-bleter (New York) 26.1 (1945);
A. Bloshteyn, in Unzer tsayt (New
York) (January-February 1947); H. Vaser, in Dos
naye lebn (Lodz) (August 4, 1947); Dr. E. Ringelblum, Notitsn fun varshever geto
(Notices from the Warsaw Ghetto) (Warsaw, 1952), pp. 308, 313, 314; Y. Sh.
Herts, ed., Doyres bundistn
(Generations of Bundists), vol. 2 (New York, 1956), pp. 70, 72; Khayim Leyb
Fuks, biography of Leyzer Heler, in Leksikon
fun der nayer yidisher literatur, vol. 3: http://yleksikon.blogspot.ca/2016/03/leyzer-heler.html
Khayim Leyb Fuks
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