VOLF TSAYTLIN

VOLF TSAYTLIN (b. December 1853)

            He was born in Kelm (Kelmė), Kovno Province (according to M. Sinai, he was born in Grodno).  He studied in religious elementary schools and yeshivas.  In London he published (with Dr. Hertsberg) a Yiddish-language weekly newspaper Hamitspe (The watchtower).  Hertsberg wrote in German and Tsaytlin translated into Yiddish; M. Sinai claims that they published a Hebrew-language weekly Hatsofe (The spectator).  Tsaytlin also contributed to: Halevanon (Lebanon) and Kavod halevanon (Respect for Lebanon) of Yeḥiel Bril; Hamagid (The preacher); Haivri (The Jew); and he corresponded for Hamelits (The advocate).  In 1892 he arrived in Argentina, where he wrote for publications put out by A. Vermont, among others.  Using the pen name Z. Levin, he published a weekly newspaper of humor, Der poyk (The drum).  He was the founder and, with Yankev-Shmuel Lyakhovitski, editor of the first Yiddish daily in Argentina, Der tog (The day), in early 1914 (according to Sh. Rozhanski, January 1, 1913).  He opened the first Yiddish publishing house in Argentina.

Sources: Argentine, fuftsik yor idisher yishev, tsvantsik yor di prese (Argentina, fifty years of the Jewish community, twenty years of Di prese) (Buenos Aires, 1938), p. 609; Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentine (The published Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), pp. 44, 122; M. Sinai, in Yorbukh tshy”d fun der yidisher kehile in buenos-ayres (Yearbook for 1953/1954 of the Jewish community of Buenos Aires) (Buenos Aires, 1954), p. 139.

Yankev Kahan