URIEL TSIMER

URIEL TSIMER (ca. 1921-November 16, 1961)

            He was born in Galicia.  He attended religious elementary school, later in Vienna the high school of Sh. Khayes (Chajes).  Later still, in the land of Israel, he studied at the Hebron Yeshiva and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  He mastered a number of languages and acquired considerable learning.  He was the first editor of the daily religious newspaper Hakol (The voice) in Jerusalem.  He penned journalistic articles under the pseudonyms A. Gitlin and A. Basik.  He came to the United States to recover from a severe illness.  There he worked as correspondent for Hakol at the United Nations.  He was close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe.  He translated into Yiddish: the Tanya of Shneur Zalmen, and two works by Rabbi Avraham Ḥanokh Glitsenshteyn, Rabi yisroel bal shem tov, fakten un kurtse ophandlungen vegn zayn biografye un shite, lehre un minhogim (Rabbi Yisroel Baal-Shem-Tov, facts and a short treatment concerning his biography and approach, teachings and practices) (New York: Otsar haḥasidim, 1960), 306 pp., and Aresṭ un bafrayung fun altn rebin (Arrest and freeing of the old rebbe), concerning Shneur Zalmen of Lyadi (New York: Otsar haḥasidim, 1960), 136 pp.  He edited Likute siḥot (Collected talks) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (New York), 2 volumes, and he penned a book for the Lubavitcher publishing house on modesty for Jewish girls.  He was bedridden for twelve years with paralysis.  With amazing courage, he withstood this severe illness.  He was active until the end of his life—among the most stinging of Orthodox journalists.  He died in a London hospital.

Sources: Nisn Gordon, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (November 20, 1961; November 23, 1961; August 8, 1963); Panim al panim (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv) (November 14, 1961); Y. Y. Domb, in Der id (New York) (January 5, 1962); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (September 2, 1962); Y. Vaynberg, in Di idishe heym (New York) (Kislev [= November-December] 1962).

Yankev Kahan