PERETS (-ALTER) TSUNZER

PERETS (-ALTER) TSUNZER (1896-1944)

            He was born in Vilna to a father who was a shopkeeper.  He graduated from a Russian elementary school and the first Jewish pedagogical course of study in Vilna.  He worked as a business employee and as a bookkeeper.  He published stories, journalistic articles, and critical treatments in: Der tog (The day) (1912), Der shtern (The star) (1913, 1919), and Kol boynik (Rascal) (1919)—in Vilna; Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) (1925-1934) in New York; and Kultur (Culture) in Chicago.  He also contributed to the collections: Fraye shriftn (Free writings), edited by A. N. Shteynberg.  He was a serious critic with originality and courage.  People invested great hopes in him.  In the years of WWII, he worked in the Vilna ghetto administration.  He was murdered in an Estonian concentration camp.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Shmerke Katsherginski, Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1947); A. Ayzen, Dos gaystike ponem fun geto (The spiritual face of the ghetto) (Mexico City, 1950), p. 33; Yefim Yeshurin, 100 yor moderne yidishe literatur, biblyografisher tsushteyer (100 years of modern Yiddish literature, bibliographical contribution) (New York, 1966).

Benyomen Elis