AVROM-LEYZER LERNER

AVROM-LEYZER LERNER (1906-1942)

            He was born in Sokolov-Podolski, Poland.  He attended religious primary school and yeshiva, and later graduated from a high school and studied law at Warsaw University (graduating in 1935).  He was a member of the central committee of Poale Agudat-Yisrael (Workers of Agudat Yisrael) and chairman of the Orthodox academic association “Hamoriya” (Mount Moriah) in Poland.  He was also secretary of the Agudah bank in Warsaw.  He published poems, articles, and literary journalism in: Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter (Orthodox youth pages), Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper), Deglanu (Our banner), and Darkhenu (Our path)—in Warsaw; Beys yankev-zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal) and Yudishe arbayter-shtime (Voice of Jewish labor) in Lodz; and Hator (The turtle-dove) and Netiva (Path) in Jerusalem; among others.  He edited the Agudah weekly Morija (Moriah) in Warsaw (1931-1939).  In book form, he published Lider (Poetry) (Warsaw, 1939), 96 pp.  When the German seized Warsaw in 1939, Lerner left for the Soviet-occupied territory in Poland.  He later was confined in the Lemberg ghetto, from which he was led out, during the liquidation, to a concentration camp and murdered there.  A poem of his was republished in Udim (Firebrands) (Jerusalem, 1960), p. 196.

Sources: Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter (Warsaw) (February-March 1931); Beys yankev zhurnal (Lodz) (July 1939); information from Dr. Hillel Zaydman in New York and Yisroel Emyot in Rochester.

Khayim Leyb Fuls