RUVN TSARFAS

RUVN TSARFAS (ca. 1894-1944)

            He came from Lithuania.  He was living in Kovno, and in 1926 he was a teacher there in the Jewish teachers’ seminary.  He published poetry, articles, theater criticism, and feature pieces for: Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Nayes (News), and other newspapers.  He also published features and verse under the pen name Rufani.  From Russian he translated: D. M. Shvarts, Zikhroynes un iberlebungen fun der velt-milkhome 1914-1918 (Memoirs and experiences from the world war, 1914-1918) (Kaunus [Kovno], 1935), 236 pp.  He served as editor of Funken, vekhntlekher familyen-zhurnal (Sparks, a weekly family magazine) (Kovno) 1 (1931).  He was confined in the Kovno ghetto and was the author of the popular ghetto song “Yidish-tango” (Jewish tango).  He was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp in Munich.

Sources: N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder older (Montreal) (April 10, 1944); Yoysef Gar, Umkum fun der yidisher kovne (The destruction of Jewish Kovno) (Munich, 1948), pp. 412-13; Sh. Grinhoyz, in Lite (Lithuania), anthology, vol. 1 (New York, 1951), pp. 1753, 1756; Y. Kaplan, in Lite, vol. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1965), pp. 345, 422, 423, 601.

Benyomen Elis

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 466.]