BENYOMEN SARABSKI

BENYOMEN SARABSKI

            He was born in Vilna.  He was a graduate of the Vilna Jewish senior high school.  From his earliest years, he demonstrated a talent for writing.  Together with Sh. Reznik, he co-edited the student organ of his high school, Undzer bleter (Our little newspaper), in 1924.  He translated for the choir of his high school a series of songs and opera arias from Russian and German, some of which were published in: “Repertuar fun y. gershteyns khor in vilne” (Repertoire of Y. Gershteyn’s choir in Vilna), in Gershteyn, Lider fun a gemishtn khor (Songs of a mixed choir), first collection (Vilna, 1937), 12 pp. + 24 pp.; and in the concert programs of the choir.  Only a few of his own original songs were published in Vilner tog (Vilna day) (August 7, 1936).  He also translated into Yiddish the comic opera by Robert Planquette: Di korneviler glokn (The Corneville bells [original: Cloches de Corneville]); it was staged by the Vilna Jewish Opera Ensemble on October 18, 1936.  Sarabski worked for a short period of time as a proofreader at Vilner tog.  At some point, he fled to Soviet Russia, where he was arrested and exiled.  In 1936 he was already no longer among the living, though exactly when and where he died remain unknown.

His sister ROKHL was a teacher in the Vilna ghetto schools; she was later deported to Lithuanian concentration camps.  She was the author of poems.  In Sh. Katsherginski’s Lider fun di getos un lagern (Songs from the ghettos and camps) (New York, 1948), some of her poems may be found: “Dinaverker yidn” (Jews in Dinaverk) and “Ven s’kumt der friling” (When spring arrives) (pp. 262-63).  She was shot two days before liberation when she attempted to escape from the camp.  Her mother and another sister Khyene were murdered in 1941 in Ponar.

Sources: Sh. Kahan, “Di operetn-brigade” (The operetta brigade), Vilner tog (August 18, 1936); Lerer yizker-bukh (Remembrance volume for teachers) (New York, 1954), pp. 268-69; Leyzer Ran, 25 yor yung vilne (Twenty-five years of Young Vilna) (New York, 1955); Shmerke Katsherginski, Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1957), p. 254; information from his friend Ezriyahu Dobrushkes in Brussels.

Leyzen Ran

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 398.]