AVROM-SHLOYME AMIEL

AVROM-SHLOYME AMIEL (1890s-1960)

            He was born in Pyesk (Peski, Piaski), near Lublin, Poland.  He received a traditional Jewish education and studied Talmud with his father.  For secular subject matter, he had tutors and later he also studied in the yeshivas of Slonim, Sventsyan (Svencionys), and Slobodka (near Kovno).  He was expelled from the Slobodka yeshiva for editing in secret the Yeshive-shtral (Yeshiva ray [of light]) and for speaking out against the powerful forces in the yeshiva.  During WWI he was in Vilna and working as a teacher in a public school and giving private Hebrew lessons.  In 1925 he was a representative of the municipal “Ezrat-yetomim” (Orphans’ aid) in Bialystok.  He was cofounder of the research library of the Jewish community and a committee member of the “League for Laborers in the Land of Israel.”  In 1938 he departed for Israel, worked in the cooperative publishing house “Aḥdut” (Unity) in Tel Aviv, wrote Hebrew poetry, earlier co-edited Byalistoker almanakh (Bialystok almanac) of 1931, contributed to the Bialystok jubilee publications, and was a cofounder of Bialystok literary circles.  He placed numerous articles on literary and journalistic topics in such Bialystok publications as: Undzer frayhayt (Our freedom), and Folksblat (People’s newspaper), and Dos naye lebn (The new life), among others.  He also penned children’s stories. He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Jubilee issue of Dos naye lebn (Bialystok) (April 4, 1929); Byalistoker almanakh (Bialystok) (1931); Byalistoker leksikon (Bialystok handbook) (Bialystok, 1935); A. Sh. Hershberg, in Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok), vol. 1 (New York, 1949), p. 421; Byalistoker shtime (New York) (March-April 1953); A. Zbar, in Byalistoker shtime (April 1954); Byalistoker shtime (September 1959).

Yankev Kahan