LIPE LEHRER

LIPE LEHRER (March 20, 1890-August 16, 1963)

            A brother of Leybush and Dovid Lehrer, he was born in Warsaw.  He studied in the Skole “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school), where his teacher of Hebrew was H. D. Nomberg.  At age ten he founded an association of young students “Naare-tsiyon” (Youths of Zion), which would assemble on Saturdays to read from Hebrew literature and sing Hebrew songs.  He also organized at the time a lending library of Hebrew and Yiddish books for young readers.  He early on joined the Zionist socialist movement.  At that time (1905-1906), he became a reporter for the daily newspaper, Der veg (The way), in Warsaw.  In 1913 he moved to New York to join his elder brother Leybush.  He worked in a sweatshop manufacturing leather goods.  From 1921 he was active in the Sholem Aleichem schools in New York.  In 1922 he became manager of Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine) in New York (a monthly, edited by Shmuel Niger).  With Y. Kaminski, he cofounded in 1925 the publisher Matones at the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute and directed this publishing house until the last years of his life.  Over the years 1926-1947, he was manager and proxy editor of Kinder-zhurnal and in 1951 editor of the magazine; using such pen names as L. Amnon, A. Lind, L. Rutis, and A. Monsher, he published there articles, stories, and biographies of Jewish writers and cultural leaders.  He also contributed pieces to: Shul-almanakh (School almanac) in Philadelphia (April 1935); and Unzer yorbukh (kinder-ring) (Our yearbook, children’s circle) in Philadelphia (May 1956); as well as other publications.  Together with Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky and Dr. Shmuel Elsberg, in 1928 he founded “Kultur gezelshaft” (Culture association) in New York.  He was a delegate to the World Jewish Culture Congress in 1959 in New York.  He made a trip to the state of Israel in 1958.  He died in New York.

Sources: Y. Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike (Yiddish newspapers in America) (New York, 1946); Y. Zilberberg, in Fraye arbeter-shtime (New York) (August 12, 1955); Zilberberg, in Der veg (Mexico City) (October 15, 1955); Zilberberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (May 9, 1959); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (December 23, 1955); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (October 1956; August-September 1959); Y. Glants, in Der veg (April 27, 1957); Glants, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (April 1958); Sh. Rozhanski, in Yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (February 6, 1959); S. Dingol, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (May 9, 1959); M. Ginzburg, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (March 5, 1962); Lezikorn lipe lehrer (In memory of Lipe Lehrer) (New York, 1963), 58 pp.

Zaynvl Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 342.]