DOVID-YOKHONEN LEVIN

DOVID-YOKHONEN LEVIN (1901-April 3, 1948)

            He was born in Molodetshne (Maladziečna), Vilna district.  He studied in religious primary school, the Volozhin Yeshiva, and with private tutors.  He was for many years a member of the central committee of the Hitaḥdut (Unity) party in Poland (later the Labor Zionist Hitaḥdut).  He was also active in ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades), HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), and in the Jewish school movement.  He was a member of the Rovno city council and the Jewish representative to the city administration.  He was also a member of the Jewish community administration in Rovno.  He was a well-known Yiddish speaker in prewar Poland.  He lived in Rovno until 1939, and with the outbreak of WWII he departed for Lithuania, and from there through Holland he made his way to Japan, where until his departure for the United States he was active in the Joint Distribution Committee.  From June 1941 he was living in New York, and there he was active among Labor Zionists.  He contributed to: Bafrayung (Liberation) in Warsaw (1919-1924); Folk un land (People and nation) in Warsaw-Lodz (1922-1935); and Unzer veg (Our way) in Rovno (1934-1939) of which he was also co-editor.  In America he placed work in Der idisher kemfer (The Jewish fighter) in New York.  He died in New York in the middle of delivering a speech.

Sources: Sh. Grodzenski, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (April 9, 1948); A. Aviḥai, in Sefer rovna (Rovno volume) (Tel Aviv, 1946/1947), pp. 266, 267, 268, 271; Raḥel Mutyuk, in Sefer rovna, p. 207; obituary notices in the Yiddish press in New York (April 4 and 5, 1948).

Khayim Leyb Fuks