BOREKH SEKULA

BOREKH SEKULA (January 17, 1900-August 10, 1980)

            He was born in Sobolev (Sobolów), Poland.  He received a religious education.  In 1919 he moved to Warsaw, where he worked making knitwear.  In 1926 he made aliya to the land of Israel.  He initially helped Sh. Kaplanski to establish a leftist opposition which published the periodical Avuka (Torch).  He grew close to the Communist Party, but only joined it in 1961.  He published articles in the Communist press: Der fraynt (The friend), Iberboy (Construction), and Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper)—in Warsaw; Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom) and Hamer (Hammer) in New York; Naye prese (New press) in Paris; Unzer fraynt (Our friend) in Montevideo; and Foroys (Onward), Kol haam (Voice of the people), Fray yisroel (Free Israel), and Der veg (The way) in Tel Aviv; among others.  In pamphlet format: Tsienistn-sotsyalistn tsvishn zikh (Zionist-socialists among themselves) (unseen), published in Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) and Hamer; Tsienizm on a maske (Zionism without a mask) (Tel Aviv: Kultur, 1935), 32 pp., using the pseudonym E. Hofman.  He died in Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Sources: R. Barzilai, Zo haderekh (This is the way) (Tel Aviv (February 4, 1970); Sovetish heymland (Moscow) 3 (1970); Der veg (Tel Aviv) (January 16, 1980).

Ruvn Goldberg

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 409-10.