SHMUEL-ZALMEN TSUKERMAN

SHMUEL-ZALMEN TSUKERMAN (September 8, 1890-March 9, 1983)

            He was born in a village near Ilye (Il’ya), Minsk region, Byelorussia.  He received a traditional education.  In his youth he moved with his parents to South Africa.  He worked as a peddler and in shops, and he reveled in the African wilderness.  From 1906 to 1910, he lived in New York and contributed to an English-language weekly in Brooklyn.  Thereafter, he went back to South Africa.  Then, in 1916 he made his way back to the United States for a short period of time, and the third time he came to America in 1919.  In 1917 he was the cofounder and manager of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (ITA).  In 1924 he became a news writer and news editor for Tog (Day) in New York, and from 1925 he was in charge of the paper’s division “Di biznes velt” (The business world), through the period of WWII.  Already in 1905, he was the Cape Town correspondent for London’s Jewish Chronicle, and in 1920 he was its New York correspondent.  Over the years 1912-1913, he wrote for Jewish Chronicle and Idishe fohn (Jewish banner) in Johannesburg.  He also wrote for American Jewish Chronicle and other serials.  He volunteered for the Jewish Legion in WWI, which helped to liberate the land of Israel from the Turkish regime.  For several decades of journalistic activities, earlier for Tog and later for Tog-mporgn-zhurnal (Day-morning journal), he published articles on Jewish community issues, world problems, economics, politics, and a weekly piece entitled “Iber amerike” (Over America).  He also published a series of articles on Eleanor Roosevelt.  In his later years he served as managing editor of Tog-morgn-zhurnal.  He was secretary of the committee to publish a Sholem-Aleichem book.  He made a voyage to Israel.  Among his pen names: Sh. Rapaport, Z. Shats, and A. D. Vayzer.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 10, 1963; A. Pen, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (March 11, 1963); A. Glants, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (March 13, 1963); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (March 17, 1963).

Benyomen Elis