SHMUEL-LEYB TSITRON (SAMUEL LEIB ZITRON)

SHMUEL-LEYB TSITRON (SAMUEL LEIB ZITRON) (May 16, 1860-November 8, 1930)

            He was born in Minsk.  His father Moyshe-Yankev was a great scholar and did not want to entrust his son to elementary school teachers; he thus taught him himself.  When Tsitron was ten years old, his father died.  From that point, he wandered from one yeshiva to another, until he arrived at the Volozhin Yeshiva.  There he began stealthily to read modern Hebrew books, and for this reason he had leave the yeshiva.  He began a correspondence with Perets Smolenskin who brought him to Vienna in 1876.  From Vienna, Tsitron traveled on to Breslau to study in the local rabbinical seminary, though he shortly thereafter interrupted his studies.  From Breslau in 1877 he sent his first Hebrew-language correspondence piece to Hamagid (The preacher), and one year later he published his first story, “Kegavna” (a section of the Zohar), in Smolenskin’s Hamabit (The gaze).  He worked as a Hebrew teacher, 1882-1883, in the town of Prostkel, near Lik, and became a regular contributor to Hamagid and Hashaḥar (The dawn).  In 1884 the Vilna “lovers of Zion” (Ḥoveve-Tsiyon) brought out Tsitron’s Hebrew translation of Dr. Pinsker’s Selbstemanzipation (Auto-emancipation) under the title Im eyn ani li mi li (If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?), and that same year he began writing for Hamelits (The advocate).  His first article there was a sharp protest against Sh. Dubnov’s tendencies at the time.  In 1885 he came to Warsaw and published a series of stories in Hebrew.  He was a principal contributor, 1886-1887, to Rabinovitsh’s Kneset yisrael (Congregation of Israel), and in it he published several monographs concerning the first Hebrew works of fiction.  After marrying he lived initially in Marianpol and later in Novozibkov (Novozybkov), Czernowitz Province, and worked there as a teacher.  Over the years from 1889 to 1903, he contributed pieces to Hamelits, Aḥad Haam’s Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah), Luaḥ aḥiasaf, and Hashavua (The week) in Cracow, among others.  In 1904 he settled in Vilna and became an internal contributor to Hazman (The times).  There he wrote critical articles and feature pieces, as well as the first part of the history of Ḥoveve-Tsiyon.  He published, 1911-1915, in Haolam (The world) his foundational, revised history of the Hebrew press.  When Hazman ceased publication, Tsitron began to write more in Yiddish.  In 1878 he debuted in print with a Yiddish feature piece entitled “A tagebukh fun a kadokhesnik” (A diary of a feverish person) in Radkinson’s Kol haam (Voice of the people).  Ten years later, in 1888, he published in Yudisher folksblat (Jewish people’s newspaper) his “Brief fun poyln” (Letter from Poland), memoirs and letters from Lev Levanda in Sholem-Aleichem’s Yudishe biblyotek (Yiddish library) 1, and a feature entitled “Shabes” (Sabbath) in M. Spektor’s Hoyz-fraynd (House friend).  He then paused for ten years in his writing in Yiddish.  When there was development in the Yiddish press, Tsitron began to write more often for it.  He placed work in Yud (Jew) from 1899 with a monograph, feature pieces, and the like.  In 1904 he became an internal contributor to Der tog (The day) in St. Petersburg, and half a year later, the newspaper closed down.  He then proceeded to write for daily newspapers: Di tsayt (The times), Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper), and for the short war pamphlet Der fraynd (The friend), published by the Margolin press with Hazman.  After the downfall of Hazman, he became a regular writer for the cooperative newspaper Dos folk (The people).  At the same time, he also wrote features for Vilner tageblat (Vilna daily newspaper), and for several months he placed work in Letste nayes (Latest news). In the spring of 1916, during the German occupation of Vilna, he became inspector of Jewish schools for the Jewish central committee.  He published a pamphlet at the time on the possibilities for Hebrew-language subject matter.  He contributed to: Vilner zamlbukh (Vilna anthology) 1 and 2 (among other items, a historical piece on the Vilna Jewish community); Martin Buber’s journal Der Jude (The Jew), Jüdische Rundschau (Jewish review), and Neue jüdische Monatshefte (New Jewish monthly)—the last three in German; Dos yidishe folk (The Jewish people), edited by Dr. Y. Gotlib; and the Lodz anthology Bloy-vays (Blue-white); among others.  Together with Moyshe Shalit, he edited Unzer osed (Our future)—a Zionist weekly newspaper, nineteen issues appeared—for which he mainly wrote journalistic articles.  In 1919 he became a contributor to Di yidishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper).  After L. Yofe made aliya to the land of Israel, he assumed the editorship of the newspaper.  He edited the anthologies Mes-les (Day and night), the Hebrew supplement to Di yidishe tsaytung entitled Hashavua, and the collection Haḥayim (Life).  In 1920 he became a regular writer for Moment (Moment) in Warsaw, in which, among other items, he published the following series: “Meshumodim” (Apostates) which was also published in Vilna’s Tog (Day); “Di ershte shvalbn” (The first swallows) which was drawn from Ḥoveve-Tsiyon from the past; and “Shtadlonim” (Intercessors).  He also contributed to: Di yidishe velt (The Jewish world), Di naye velt (The new world) which was edited by Shmuel Niger, Vayser bukh (White book), Bikher-velt (Book world), M. Shalit’s Lebn (Life), Der tog in New York, and other serials.  He was editor of the Hebrew-Yiddish collection Sefer zikaron leharabanit ester rubinshteyn (Remembrance volume for Esther Rubinstein, the rabbi’s wife) (Vilna, 1925), 88 pp.  Since the rise of Ḥoveve-Tsiyon, Tsitron was linked to its work for the land of Israel.  He would often appear in public as a speaker at Zionist meetings and participated in a number of Zionist congresses and conferences.  He was chairman of Vilna association for Jewish writers and journalists.  His books include: Dray literarishe doyres, zikhroynes vegn yidishe shriftshteler (Three literary generations, memoirs of Jewish writers) (Vilna: Shreberk), vol. 1 (1920), 175 pp., vol. 2 (1921), 159 pp., vol. 3 (1922), 164 pp., vol. 4 (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1928), 184 pp.—this work contains extremely rich and mainly memoiristic materials of some twenty-five Yiddish and Hebrew writers, among them: Ayzik-Meyer Dik, Elyokem Tsunzer, Yitskhok Dinezon, Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Y. L. Perets, Sholem-Aleichem, M. L. Lilienblum, Avrom Goldfaden, and others; Di geshikhte fun der yidisher prese fun yor 1863 biz 1889 (The history of the Yiddish press from the year 1863 until 1889) (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1923), 171 pp.; Meshumodim, tipn un siluetn funem noentn over (Apostates, types and silhouettes from the recent past) (Warsaw: Tsentral, 1923), two parts, 175 pp. and 166 pp., third and fourth parts entitled Avek fun folk (Away from the people) (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1927, 1928), 307 pp. and 378 pp., in Hebrew as Meaḥore hapargod (Vilna, 1923), 2 parts, Polish translation by Dr. M. Kanfer published in Nowy dziennik (New daily) in Cracow; Shtadlonim, interesante yidishe tipn fun noentn over (Intercessors, interesting Jewish types from the recent past) (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1926), 376 pp.; Barimte yidishe froyen, zeyer lebn un virkn (Important Jewish women, their lives and impacts) (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1928), 198 pp.  Tsitron’s Ale verk (Collected works) in Yiddish was published in seven volumes by Sh. Shreberk and Aḥisefer (Warsaw).  His Hebrew books include: Toldot ḥoveve-tsiyon (History of Lovers of Zion) (Odessa, 1914), 383 pp.; Hertsl, ḥayav ufeulotav (Hertzl, his life and work) (Vilna, 1921), 164 pp.; Leksikon tsiyoni, toldot anshe-shem shehitsṭayenu al sade harayon hatsiyoni, im temunotehem (Zionist biographical dictionary, history of people who excelled in the field of the Zionist ideal, with their pictures) (Warsaw, 1924), 824 columns; Anashim vesofrim, zikhronot vereshamim miyeme bikure ḥibat tsiyon vehatsiyonut (Peoples and literatures, memoirs and impressions from the early days of Ḥibat-Tsiyon and Zionism) (Vilna: Sh. Shreberk, 1921), 164 pp.; Yotsre hasifrut haivrit haḥadasha (Treasures of modern Hebrew literature) (Vilna: Shreberk, 1922), 2 parts (two further parts, 1928); translation into Hebrew of vol. 1 of Kol kitve sh. an-ski (Collected writings of Sh. An-ski) (Vilna, 1921), 152 pp.; Selig Schachnowitz, Bemamlekhet khuzar hayehudit, roman histori (In the Jewish Khazar kingdom, a historical novel) (Frankfurt-am-Main: Omanut, 1924), 330 pp.; Yehoash, Fun nyu-york biz rekhoves un tsurik (From New York to Rehovot and back); Graetz, Di yudishe folkstimlikhe geshikhte (History of the Jewish people); and Sh. An-ski, Ḥurban hayehudim bepolin, galitsya ubukovina (The destruction of Jewry in Poland, Galicia, and Bukovina) (Berlin, 1929).  His pen names included: Ben Zoma, Hasokar, Sh. Sofer, Ben-Adam, Flarin, Ish Ivri, and Yakobson.  He died in Vilna.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; M. Ribalov, in Tsukunft (New York) (December 1920); Ribalov, in Hadoar (New York) (September 5, 1930; November 14, 1940); Dr. Y. Shatski, in Tsukunft (February 1925); A. Gurshteyn, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 1 (1926), 2-3 (1928); Shmuel Niger, in Tsukunft (May 1928); Dr. A. Koralnik, Shriftn (Writings) (New York, 1938-1940), vol. 2, pp. 7, 11; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1947); F. Apotshinski, in Lodzher tageblat (Lodz) (October 1930); Moyshe Shalit, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (October 24, 1930); Y. D. Berkovitsh, in Forverts (New York) (March 1, 1931; October 30, 1932); Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), part 3 (Vilna, 1935); Shelomo Shreberk, Zikhronot hamotsi laor shelomo shreberk (Memoirs of a publisher, Shelomo Shreberk) (Tel Aviv: Sh. Shreberk, 1954), pp. 122-23; Keneder odler (Montreal) (March 11, 1952); Yefim Yeshurin, 100 yor moderne yidishe literatur, biblyografisher tsushteyer (100 years of modern Yiddish literature, bibliographical contribution) (New York, 1966).

Yekhiel Hirshhoyt