SHLOYME-DOVID FOGELSON

SHLOYME-DOVID FOGELSON (1870s-July 23, 1920)

            He was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia.  He received a traditional education.  He also studied Russian, French, German, and English.  He later made his way to Johannesburg, South Africa, and there he became a pioneer of the Yiddish press in Transvaal.  Together with B. Berman, he published (1896-1897) Di afrikanishe idishe gazeten (The African Jewish gazette).  In 1898 he founded his own newspaper Der ekspres (The express) which existed for about a year.  In 1911 he brought out the weekly Der afrikaner (The African).  As a bonus to the weekly, he published the collection Fraye baylage (Free supplement)—among the most serious Yiddish publications in South Africa, and he was set to bring into existence a quarterly journal of a purely literary character, though his death destroyed the plan.  He also edited a Yiddish supplement to the official organ of the Unionist Progressive Monthly, which appeared in print in Johannesburg on the eve of the elections in 1910.  By profession a bookkeeper, he contributed his own earnings to keep the newspaper afloat.  He died in Johannesburg.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Leybl Feldman, Yidn in dorem-afrike (Jews in South Africa) (Johannesburg-Vilna, 1937); Di yidn fun yohanesburg (The Jews of Johannesburg) (September 1951; June 1953); Di yidn fun yohanesburg (1956), pp. 216-37; Y. M. Sherman, in Fir redaktorn un zeyer tsaytung (Four editors and their newspaper) (Johannesburg) (November 1948).

Yankev Kahan